
Book »Q 



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PRESENTED BY 



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CHRISTIAN PROGRESS: 
A SEQUEL 

TO THE 

ANXIOUS INQUIRER AFTER SALVATION. 



BY REV. JOHN ANGELL JAMES, 

OF BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND. 



Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto thos» 
things which are before. Phil. 3 : 13. 
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lcrd. Hosea 6 ■ 3. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK 



CONTENTS. 



F4.BE 

Introduction \ . . 5 

CHAPTER I. 
The Necessity of Progress 21 

CHAPTER II. 
Nature of Progress 47 

* CHAPTER III. 
The Means of Progress . 105 

CHAPTER IV. 
Mistakes concerning Progress 147 

CHAPTER V. 
Hinderances to Progress . . 184 

CHAPTER VI. 
Motives to Progress ..216 

CHAPTER VII. 
Encouragements to Progress . . ■ . . , . . 252 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE DESCRIPTION OF PERSONS FOR WHOSE 
BENEFIT THIS WORK IS INTENDED AND 
TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED. 

"If there be one word," says a writer in one 
of the ablest of our evangelical periodicals, 
"which more than another now commands the 
ear of the public, that word is ' progress.' It 
has fallen like a spark among the inflammable 
mass of the working and thinking classes, 
This mighty watchword of the newest and 
most potential eras has run through the mighty 
chain of hearts and minds with electric in- 
tensity." This is true of science, of literature, 
of arts, of commerce, of jurisprudence, and of 
politics. It would be strange if religion, con- 
sidered as a practical system, could be justly 
exempted from this law of progress. "We are 
to expect no new revelations, and cannot look 
for any new doctrines to be brought out of the 
old ones. That these however have yet to 
develope themselves still more clearly; that 
new treasures are to be brought out of this 



6 , INTRODUCTION. 

inexhaustible mine, and a new power to be 
exerted by this mighty instrument for the 
world's regeneration, who can doubt ? 

It is not, however, of the progress of theo- 
logical science, as it is found in the systems of 
divines, and as it shall clear away the clouds 
and mists which hang over men's minds, and 
hide the glory of the great luminary of the 
world, that I now write, but of the progress of 
truth in the individual mind and heart and 
character ; of that blessed growth in spiritual 
life which is to be the supreme object of every 
one who has passed through a state of religious 
solicitude, and which carries forward the soul 
of "the anxious inquirer" to the condition of 
the established believer. 

This work takes it for granted that the 
reader has decided, in his own opinion at any 
rate, in the great business of religion, to look 
for salvation by faith in Christ alone. I am 
supposing that he has been led to this by the 
blessing of Grod upon my former work, or upon 
some other means. It is not my design noio 
to urge him to surrender at the foot oi the 
cross to God. I consider this as done. He 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

has also become the professor of the faith he 
has exercised. His difficulties have been re- 
moved, his mistakes rectified, and seeing his 
only way of salvation to be by trust in Christ, 
he is now to be led forward in the ways of the 
Lord. 

It is the confession and lamentation of the 
horticulturist that many of the most promis- 
ing and beautiful blossoms of his trees do not 
set in fruit ; and that many which do, never 
ripen to maturity. Precisely similar cases occur 
to the spiritual husbandmen in the garden of 
the Lord. "Where is the faithful minister of 
Jesus Christ who has not often in sadness and 
disappointment, to adopt the language, and to 
sympathize in the feelings of surprise, grief, 
and disappointment of the apostle Paul, where 
he said, "I am afraid of you, lest I have 
bestowed upon you labor in vain. My little 
children, of whom I travail in birth again until 
Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present 
with you now, and to change my voice ; for I 
stand in doubt of you. Ye did run well ; who 
did hinder you, that ye should not obey the 
truth ?" Gal. 4 : 11, 19, 20 ; 5 : 7. How often, 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

when through God's grace we fondly hoped we 
had led the penitent to the cross, directed the 
eye of faith to the Lamb of God, assisted him 
in the exercise of a "good hope," and left him 
in possession of a quiet consciousness of the 
great change, have we seen him leave his " first 
love," and instead of advancing into a fuller 
development of Christian character, relinquish- 
ing the solicitude he once possessed, and sink 
ing into a state of lukewarm indifference. 

Often do faithful ministers perceive that 
religious concern is awakened in the minds of 
some of their hearers. Conviction of sin by 
the law is produced, and the great question 
with its accompanying solicitude is awakened, 
"What shall I do to be saved ?" The anxiou? 
inquirer is instructed in the way of salvation. 
He professes to understand and receive "the 
truth as it is in Jesus." His solicitude sub- 
sides into peace. He becomes a professor of 
religion ; is received into the fellowship of the 
church; and considers himself, and is con- 
sidered by others, a Christian. It might be 
expected that he would now grow in grace ; 
that he would be continually advancing in the 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

divine life ; that his attainments would be 
always increasing ; that progression would be 
the law of his new existence. But is not the 
contrary to this the case with many of those 
who make a profession? Do they look like 
learners in the school of Christ who are mak- 
ing great proficiency in divine knowledge ? On 
the contrary, does it not appear too evident 
that in many cases the young disciple, instead 
of remaining the anxious believer and pro- 
gressive Christian, has subsided into the care- 
less professor? As if his solicitude was to 
make a profession, not to maintain it ; to be 
called a Christian, rather than be one ; to enjoy 
church privileges, rather than to feel individual 
obligations. 

It might seem strange that when a false 
profession is so awfully denounced, and the 
Lord's table guarded as if by the flaming 
sword of a cherub in that woe pronounced by 
the apostle upon the unworthy receiver, any 
one should be so rash and reckless as to expose 
his soul to the perilous stroke of that fearful 
weapon. Yet many do, by partaking in an 
unmeet state of mind of the sacred supper. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

It will perhaps be asked, Why do the minis- 
ters of religion permit it ? "We reply, Can they 
search the heart ? Can they discern between 
the sincere and the self-deceived communicant ? 
Is not a credible profession a sufficient warrant 
to any minister to admit a person to the com- 
munion ? 

In an age like ours, when evangelical religion 
bears no stigma, and its professors are called to 
endure no persecution, it is natural to suppose 
that some, yea, many, will say, " Lord, Lord," 
who do not the will of our Father in heaven. 
Many there are who feel the obligation to make 
a profession of religion, who have no just sense 
of what it includes and requires. The persua- 
sion of friends and their own wish to be associat- 
ed with them, may also lead to this ; and thus 
the conscience is appeased, a sense of religious 
decorum indulged, and pious relatives pleased, 
while at the same time there is no adequate 
idea of the obligation which the assumption of 
the Christian name involves. 

With many persons there seems to be a radi- 
cal mistake as to the true nature of the Chris- 
tian life It is regarded too much in the light 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

of a mere profession, rather than a practice — a 
state, rather than a habit — a fixed point, rather 
than a continuous line — a resting place, rather 
than a field of labor — the goal, rather than the 
starting point. A profession has been looked 
forward to with anxiety, as a something which 
is to fix and determine the character — to give 
a religious status, to secure certain immunities. 
The mind in prospect is perhaps somewhat seri- 
ous, agitated, and solicitous. The table of the 
Lord is approached, and perhaps with some so- 
lemnity and self-surrender. And it is now regard- 
ed as a thing done. The Christian character is 
formed. The mind is at ease. The inward con- 
sciousness is, "I am a professor" In too many 
cases, solicitude is from that hour at an end. 
Instead of a trembling anxiety to be all that 
they profess ; to do all that is required of them ; 
to develope all that is contained in the Christian 
character ; to supply all the defects in know- 
ledge, faith, and holiness, which might be sup- 
posed to exist in one so young in religion ; to 
demonstrate to all around the reality, by the 
growth, of their piety ; they settle down at ease 
np->n their profession, and in many cases are 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

nevei more in earnest, and in not a few less so, 
than when they began to seek the Lord. 

But without supposing such extreme cases 
as these of self-satisfaction in the first stages of 
religion, there are others of a somewhat more 
hopeful character, but which still require the 
cautions, directions, and admonitions of such a 
work as this. And to put these more clearly 
before the reader, I may observe there are four 
successive states of mind in reference to relig- 
ion : absolute indifference — concern, attended 
by conviction of sin — faith in Christ, bringing 
relief to the burdened and troubled conscience — 
and then the work of faith in its continuous in- 
fluence on the Christian life and character. I am 
supposing now the case of one who has reached 
the third stage. His indifference has given place 
to solicitude, his solicitude has obtained relief 
by faith. The young disciple has discovered, 
to his delight, the way of pardon, peace, and 
eternal life, through the atonement of Christ. 
There he is, lying down in peace at the foot of 
the cross. The oppressive burden of his guilt is 
lost. The tormenting fear which it produced has 
been cast out by love.* He is now ready to say, 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

"Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, 
Which before the cross I spend, 
Life, and health, and peace possessing / 
From the shiner's dying Friend. 

11 Here I '11 sit, with transport viewing 
Mercy's streams, in streams of blood : 
Precious drops my soul bedewing, 
Plead and claim my peace with God." 

All this is well, good, happy — but it is not 
enough. Even he, this relieved soul, is but too 
apt to forget that he has " not yet attained, and 
is not yet perfect." Even he is but too apt to 
consider that the great transition from a state 
of nature to a state of grace — that the mighty 
bound from impenitence to conversion — that the 
wondrous translation from the power of dark- 
ness to the kingdom of God's dear son, is, if 
not all that is required, yet all that need make 
him anxious. He is so taken up with his jus- 
tification through faith, and the peace with God 
which it brings with it, that his sanctification 
is too little thought of. He is ready to say of 
Calvary what Peter did of Tabor, "It is good 
to be here ;" not considering how much yet 
remains to be done. It is indeed a blessed thing 
to be pardoned : who can deny it ? To look up 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

and see the brow of Deity not clothed with a 
frown, but radiant with a smile — to see the 
heavens all serene and cloudless, and to feel the 
bright beams of mercy diffusing warmth as well 
as light over the conscience. " Oh, the blessed- 
ness of the man whose transgressions are for- 
given, whose sin is covered, to whom the Lord 
imputeth not iniquity." But this is not the 
whole of religion — -nor the end of it — nor the 
highest glory of it. There is the purpose for 
which this very pardon is granted, to be accom- 
plished. There is all the subsequent work of 
grace, of which this is only the commencement, 
to be carried on and completed. 

Oh, thou blessed penitent, thou relieved 
anxious inquirer, thou rejoicing young believ- 
er, I would not dash the cup of consolation 
from thy lips, nor drop into it wormwood and 
gall. I would not affirjn thy joy is premature. 
On the contrary, I would say, " Rejoice in the 
Lord, rejoice in the Lord always." " The joy 
of the Lord is thy strength." " Go on thy way 
rejoicing." Yes, but then, Go on. Carry thy 
joy with thee, even joy and peace in believing. 
But still I say, Go on. Onward, onward 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

is the Christian's watchword. How blessed a 
night was it to the children of Israel when they 
celebrated the paschal feast on the eve of their 
flight from the house of bondage. Yes, but 
they WQre to eat it with their staves in their 
hands, and with other emblems of progress. 
How jubilant were their feelings when they 
found themselves safe on the farther shore of 
the Red sea. Yes, but there they were not to 
linger, but must move onward. All the length 
of the wilderness stretched between them and 
the promised land. Privations were to be en- 
dured, enemies to be encountered, difficulties 
to be surmounted, and dangers to be escaped, 
ere they could set their foot on Canaan. So is 
it with the Christian — his conversion is but his 
flight from Egypt; and amidst all the joy of 
his first faith and first love, he must be remind- 
ed of the journey through the wilderness, and 
be prepared to make it. 

The journey is in fact to the latter what 
it was to the former, the great test of charac- 
ter. Of all those six hundred thousand who 
started so joyfully from Egypt, only two crossed 
the Jordpn. All the rest found graves in the 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

wilderness. Of those who now seem so hope^ 
fully to set out for heaven, and make a good 
profession before many witnesses, how many are 
satisfied with merely beginning well. In them 
the Christian character is never developed. 
They make no progress. Not going forward, 
they turn backward. They are like ever- 
greens transplanted in the spring, which for 
a while look as vigorous and fresh as the other 
shrubs all around them ; but they send out no 
shoots, though retaining for a while their ver- 
dure. The gardener as he looks upon the plant 
has his fears, and shakes his head ; till, as the 
season advances, the signs of decay are but too 
apparent, and the leafless skeleton proclaims the 
work of death. So is it with some who make 
a profession of religion in youth. 

The design of this volume, then, will now be 
clearly seen, and the persons for whom it is in- 
tended be correctly understood. It is a sequel 
to " The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation," and 
takes up the traveller to heaven where that 
leaves him, and offers to guide him onward in 
his perilous and eventful course. To change 
the illustration from the flight of Israel out of 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

Egypt to that of Lot from Sodom, and to con- 
nect it with the work above alluded to, I may- 
say, that if the intent and effect of that little 
work, in every case where it is successful, is, to 
pluck the sinner from the condemnation of the 
law, as the angel brought the patriarch out of 
the city doomed to destruction ; the purpose of 
this is, to say to the rescued fugitive, "Escape for 
thy life : look not behind thee, neither stay thou 
in all the plain ; escape to the mountain, lest 
thou be consumed." 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

Before you proceed to read another page, 
pause, ponder, and examine. Solemnly, as in 
the presence of Grod — seriously, as taking up the 
most momentous subject in the universe — hon- 
estly, as wishing to know your real state, ask 
yourself the question, "Am I stopping in a mere 
profession ? Have not I hastily taken up the 
Christian name without duly considering what 
it is to be a Christian ; what strictness and 
earnestness it implies; what* obligations it im- 
poses ; what duties it requires ; and what pro- 
gressive improvements it demands? Have I 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

really studied the word of God to obtain a cor- 
rect idea of the nature of religion ; of its holi- 
ness, spirituality, heavenliness ? Do I under- 
stand it to be a growing meetness for, and a 
steady advance towards celestial glory ? Have 
I not concluded I am a Christian too hastily ? 
Or, have I not settled down into a state of care- 
lessness, while I ought to be still in a state of 
anxiety and effort ? Or, supposing I have ex- 
perienced a change, have I not taken up the idea 
that religion is a state rather than a progress ?" 
Reader, put these questions to yourself. Be 
honest. "Wish, long, be intensely anxious to be 
right. Tremble to your very soul's centre at 
the idea of self-deception on so momentous an 
affair. Before you read another chapter, put 
down the volume, fall upon your knees and ag- 
onize in prayer that the perusal may be blessed 
to your soul. Take the book with you into 
your closet. Read it in your most serious hours, 
in your greatest privacy, and in the most solemn 
manner. I would recommend these and some 
such other directions for its perusal as are found 
in " The Anxious Inquirer." In books for spir- 
itual edification, much depends upon the man* 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

ner in which they are read. If taken up care- 
lessly and read in a light mood, or in the com- 
pany of others, they are likely to do little good. 
The attention will not be fixed, nor the heart 
engaged, nor the conscience awakened. You 
must be somewhere alone with Grod ; where you 
can have leisure and opportunity to commune 
with your own heart and with him ; where you 
can pause, reflect, and pray, unobserved by a 
single fellow-creature ; where you can stop, ex- 
amine, ejaculate, and it may be, weep. 

You must read this work, if you would get 
any good from it, in some such serious manner 
as this. I have been very serious in writing it. 
It has lain with great weight upon my spirit, 
and has been the subject of much earnest prayer 
to Grod. I have seen much of the evils it is in- 
tended to remove, and felt much of the need of 
some such work. And as every page has been 
ivritten in the spirit and exercise of prayer more 
or less, so I feel anxious that every page should 
be read in the spirit of prayer. Offer, there* 
fore, some such supplication as this : 

" Father of mercies and Q-od of all grace, 
since thou hast put it into the heart of thy ser- 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

vant to write this little work for my edification, 
grant me, through Jesus Christ my only Medi- 
ator and Advocate, the teaching and help of thy 
Holy Spirit, that I may derive spiritual advan- 
tage from the perusal of it. Rouse my too dull 
and flagging soul to consider the importance of 
the subject. I give thee sincere and hearty 
thanks that thou hast awakened in me an anx- 
iety about salvation, and enabled me to look for 
the mercy of Grod, through Jesus Christ, unto 
eternal life. But as the work of grace is only 
just begun in me, I earnestly pray that I may 
be deeply impressed with the indispensable need 
of progressive improvement. Make me desirous 
to grow in grace : and may this book, through 
thy blessing, greatly conduce to that end. Help 
me to fix my attention upon what I read ; to 
understand what I attend to ; to treasure up 
what I understand in my memory ; and to prac- 
tise what I remember, so that I may have cause 
to bless thee that ever this work came into my 
hand. Thus, while I am thankful for the in- 
strument, thine shall be the glory, through our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." 



CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 

All spiritual good things tend to improve* 
ment. A right principle must, from its very 
nature, push outward and onward as long as 
there is in contact with it any thing that is 
wrong, for there is an expansive power in all 
truth and virtue. It would he strange if this 
were not the case with religion. It is with 
goodness as with money, the possession aug- 
ments the desire to possess more. So that they 
who are contented with such a measure of piety 
as they already suppose they possess, give fear- 
ful evidence that they have none. And this 
ought to sound alarm at once in the ears of a 
very large number of persons. " Is it true," 
they should say, " that a self-satisfied condition 



22 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

is proof of little or no religion ; that a quiet, 
easy, contented mind, without any anxiety to 
advance, is an evidence that the soul is not in 
a good and safe state ? Then ought I not to fear 
that I am deluding myself, since certainly I 
know very little ahout such a solicitude as this ? 
Have I not, since I made a profession, seemed 
to reach the summit of my hopes, and settled 
down into a state of religious competency upon 
a supposition that I am rich enough already ?" 
It may be well for the fears of some to be thus 
excited ; and that they should ask such ques- 
tions about their real condition. An uninquis- 
itive state of mind cannot be a safe one. It is 
too momentous an affair to be treated in this 
" free and easy" sort of manner. It would be 
far more rational for a young tradesman lately 
started in life to be careless and questionless 
about his advance or retrogression, than for a 
young Christian lately set out on the journey 
to heaven. " Am I making progress ?" should 
be his inquiry. Just for this reason, progress 
is the laic of true religion. This appears, 

First, from Scripture commands. We shall 
select only a few of the most prominent. 



NECESSITY OF PROG-HESS. 23 

How impressive is such language as the follow- 
ing: " That he would grant you, according to 
the riches of his glory, to he strengthened with 
might by his Spirit in the inner man; that 
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that 
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be 
able to comprehend with all saints what is the 
breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and 
to know the love of Christ, which passeth know- 
ledge, that ye might be filled with all the ful- 
ness of God." Ephes. 3 : 16-19. " That we 
henceforth be no more children, tossed to and 
fro, and carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine, by the sleight of men, and cunning crafti- 
ness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; but 
speaking the truth in love, may grow up into 
him in all things, which is the head, even Christ : 
from whom the whole body fitly joined together 
and compacted by that which every joint sup- 
plieth, according to the effectual working in the 
measure of every part, maketh increase of the 
body unto the edifying of itself in love." Eph. 
4:14-16. Read also Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 1:9-11; 
Heb. 6:1-3; 13 : 20, 21 ; 1 Pet. 2 : 1 ; 2 Pet. 
1:5; and especially 2 Pet. 3 : 18 : " Grow in 



VA CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ." May I request you to 
lay down this volume, open your Bible, and 
read these passages, remembering that it is 
God who speaks to you in every one of them, 
and commands you to go forward. 

Secondly, consider the scriptural illustra- 
tions of the nature of true religion. "VVe take 
one first from the Old Testament, and a beau- 
tiful one it is — the rise and progress of the sun. 
" The path of the just is as the shining light, 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day." Proverbs 4 : 18. It is not the glimmei 
of the glow-worm, nor the transient blaze oi 
the meteor, nor the wasting ray of the taper, 
but the grand luminary of heaven " coining 
out of his chamber and rejoicing as a strong 
man to run a race." And a very beautiful 
sight it is, to see a soul rising out of darkness, 
not stopping on the verge of the horizon, bui 
ascending higher and higher — not merely be- 
ginning its course and remaining amidst fogs, 
clouds, and mists, but shining brighter and 
brighter at every step with increasing know- 
ledge, faith, and love. But is this shining light 



x^ECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 25 

the pioture of our path? There is no such 
command given as, " Sun, stand thou still ;" 
therefore it rebukes a stationary profession. It 
is a rising and advancing, not a declining sun ; 
therefore it rebukes a backsliding state. There 
may be an occasional cloud, or even in some 
cases, as of David and Peter, a temporary 
eclipse. But when did the sun fail of carrying 
on its early dawn to a perfect day ? Be thank- 
ful, then, for " the day of small things ;" despise 
it not. But be not satisfied with it. Religion 
must be a shining and a progressive light. 

Among these scriptural illustrations there is 
none more frequent or better known than life. 
It is scarcely necessary to quote passages, they 
are so numerous and so familiar. " He that 
belie veth hath everlasting life." " By this we 
know that we have passed from death unto life." 
" He came that we might have life, and that 
we might have it more abundantly." " Your 
life is hid with Christ in God." " "When Christ 
who is our life shall appear." Religion is a 
new, a spiritual, a divine, a heavenly life ; the 
life of Grod in the soul of man. Now, it is the 
law of all life to progress It is so with veget- 



26 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

able and animal vitality, and it must of neces- 
sity be so with that which is spiritual. Mark 
the new-born babe : there is a spark of life, 
always very feeble, sometimes scarcely distin- 
guishable from death. Yet, there is life. The 
babe becomes a child, the child a youth, the 
youth a man. Life is progressive. Is not this, 
I say, the selected, the frequent emblem of the 
Christian? In support of this illustration of 
progress in religion, we may refer to one of the 
passages already quoted : " As new-born babes, 
desire the sincere milk of the word,that ye may 
grow thereby." Newly converted persons are 
babes lately born, little infants, feeble in every 
thing that pertains to spiritual life, yet there 
is life. They are not like still-born children, 
that cannot grow, but are quickened from a 
death of sin to a life of righteousness. "What 
is dead cannot grow ; as what is wholly perfect 
does not need to grow. An unregenerated sin- 
ner can never grow in spiritual life ; he must 
first be made alive : and when he is alive he 
must grow. This constitutes the difference 
between "living" in the Spirit, and "walk- 
ing" in the Spirit. There is first the principle 



NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 27 

o± life, then its manifestation in activity. So, 
young Christians are very far from being what 
they are yet to be, even on earth ; as all Chris- 
tians are very far from being what they are to 
be in heaven. The child of Grod is born to 
grow as well as to live ; and Grod, who has 
ordained the growth, has provided for it in the 
milk of the word. The representation of Arch- 
bishop Leighton in his exquisitely beautiful 
exposition of this passage is so striking that I 
shall introduce a long quotation from it, which 
no one will deem too long : 

" The whole estate and course of the Chris- 
tian's spiritual life here is called their infancy, 
not only as opposed to the corruption and 
wickedness of their previous state, but like- 
wise as signifying the weakness and imper- 
fection of it at the best in this life, compared 
with the perfection of the life to come ; for 
the weakest beginnings of grace are by no 
means so far below the highest degree of it 
possible in this life, as the highest degree falls 
short of the state of glory : so that, if one 
measure of grace is called infancy in respect 
to another, much more is all grace infancy in 



28 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

respect to glory. And surely, as for duration, 
the time of our present life is far less to eter- 
nity than the time of our natural infancy is 
to the rest of our life ; so that we may still 
be called but new or lately born. Our best 
pace and strongest walking in obedience here, 
is but the stepping of children when they 
begin to go by hold, in comparison with the 
perfect obedience in glory, the stately, grace- 
ful steps with which, on the heights of Zion, 
we shall walk in the light of the Lord ; when 
1 we shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he 
goeth.' All our knowledge here is but the 
ignorance of infants, and all our expressions 
of God and of his praises, are but as the first 
stammerings of children — which are, however, 
very pleasant both to child and parent — in 
comparison with the knowledge we shall have 
of him hereafter, ' when we shall know as we 
are known ;' and with those praises we shall 
offer him, when that new song shall be taught 
us, ' which is sung before the throne, and 
before the four living creatures, and which 
none can learn but those who are redeemed 
from the earth.' Rev. 14 : 3. A child hath in 



NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 29 

it a reasonable soul ; and yet, by the indis- 
posedness of the body, and abundance of 
moisture, it is so bound up, that its difference 
from the beasts, and its partaking of a rational 
nature, is not so apparent as afterwards ; and 
thus the spiritual life that is from above in- 
fused into a Christian, though it doth act and 
work in some degree, yet it is so clogged with 
natural corruption still remaining in him, that 
the excellency of it is much clouded and 
obscured ; but in the life to come it shall have 
nothing at all encumbering and indisposing it 
And this is the apostle Paul's doctrine : ' For 
we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 
But when that which is perfect is come, then 
that which is in part shall be done away. 
When I was a child I spoke as a child, I 
understood as a child, I thought as a child ; 
but when I became a man, I put away child- 
ish things. For now we see through a glass, 
darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in 
part ; but then shall I know even also as 1 
am known.' 1 Cor. 13 : 9-12. 

"And this is the wonder of divine grace, 
that brings so small beginnings to that height 



30 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

of perfection that we are not able to conceive 
of; that a little spark of true grace, that is 
not only undiscernible to others, but often to 
the Christian himself, should yet be the begin- 
ning of that condition wherein they shall shine 
brighter than the sun in the firmament. The 
difference is great in our natural life, in some 
persons especially, that they who in infancy 
were so feeble and wrapped up like others in 
swaddling clothes, yet afterwards come to excel 
in wisdom and in the knowledge of the sci- 
ences, to be commanders of great armies, or 
to be kings ; but the distance is far greater 
and more admirable, between the weakness of 
these new-born babes, the small beginnings of 
grace, and their after perfection, that fulness 
of knowledge that we look for, and that crown 
of immortality that all are born to who are 
born of (xod. But as in the faces and actions 
of some children, characters and presages of 
their after greatness have appeared — as a sin- 
gular beauty in Moses' countenance, as they 
write of him, and as Cyrus was made king 
among the shepherd's children with whom he 
was brought up — so also certainly in these 



NECESSITY OF rROG-RESS. 31 

children of God there be some characters and 
evidences that they are born for heaven by 
their new birth. That holiness and meekness, 
that patience and faith, that shine in the 
actions and sufferings of the saints, are char- 
acters of their Father's image, and show their 
high original, and foretell their glory to come ; 
such a glory as doth not only surpass the 
world's thoughts, but the thoughts of the chil- 
dren of God themselves. ' It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be ; but we know that, 
when He shall appear, we shall be like him ; 
for w T e shall see him as he is.' 1 John, 3 : 2." 
"\Ye now, in prosecution of the scriptural 
illustrations of religious progress, take up the 
idea of a spring. " Jesus answered and said 
unto her, Whosoever shall drink of this water 
shall thirst again ; but the water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well of watei 
springing up into everlasting life." John 
4 : 13, 14. Permit me to direct your fixed 
attention to the beauties of this passage. 
While the pleasures of the world, "the lust 
of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of 
the eyes," are but as drops which excite rather 



32 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

than allay the thirst of the natural man after 
true happiness, or at best leave him unsat- 
isfied ; the grace of Christ, in renewing and 
sanctifying the soul, leads it to the true foun- 
tain of bliss, and compels it in the fulness of 
satisfaction to exclaim, "I have found it, I 
have found it." And this source of happiness 
is not far off, for it is within and not without 
its possessor. " It shall be in Mm a well of 
water." He carries the spring about with 
him. Hence it is said, " The good man shall 
oe satisfied from himself." And it is also 
abundant, an unfailing source, a constant 
supply, a well ever accessible and never dry 
But it is not merely the satisfying, but the pro- 
gressive nature of true religion which is here 
represented. It is a beautiful image — not a 
stagnant pool, nor a well so deep as that its 
waters cannot rise ; but a spring whose spark- 
ling and gushing ebullitions shall be ever 
bubbling up, and forming an ever-living foun- 
tain that flows at all seasons of the year, in 
heat or cold, and in all the circumstances 01 
the weather, whether foul or fair, wet or dry. 
Religion always lives, always shows its beau- 



NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 33 

ties, and amidst all changes of external cir- 
cumstances. But this inward spring of grace 
in the soul is represented as rising higher and 
tiigher and never stopping till it reaches eterna] 
life ; swelling into a stream which refreshes 
others in its course to eternity, making ail 
around it fruitful and pleasant; just like a 
river flowing through a country, which irri- 
gates the land and covers it on every hand 
with fertility and beauty. 

I ask, Is this descriptive of our religion ? Do 
we know any thing of this indwelling of the 
Spirit of Grod ; this inward supply from a di- 
vine source of sanctity and bliss ; these holy 
ebullitions of sanctified feeling ; this rising up 
of an inward principle to a divine source, an 
element of life issuing from the parent fountain, 
and returning to its primitive source — a some- 
thing godlike, which aspires to Grod — heavenly, 
which aspires to heaven — eternal, which rests 
not till it has reached the eternal ? What of all 
this is in us ? Is it mystery, or plainness to 
us? It is immensely important that we give 
ourselves time and leisure to inquire into this 
matter. 

Chr. Prog 3 



34 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

The next illustration I borrow is that which 
we find in our Lord's language, " The earth 
bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade, 
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
Mark 4 : 28. This language is rather a descrip- 
tion of the growth of grace in the heart, than, 
like the grain of mustard-seed, of the advance- 
ment of the kingdom of Christ in the world. It 
is an allusion to one of the beautiful develop- 
ments and slow processes of nature in regard to 
vegetable life. How gradually does the princi- 
ple of vitality evolve, its first germinating being 
imperceptible to the most observant eye. Yet 
from that invisible germ, there grows up at 
length the strong and verdant blade. Then the 
ear gently and gradually comes forth from its 
envelopments. This, under the genial influence 
of the heavens and the fertilizing power of the 
earth, swells into the plump, ripe corn, ready foi 
the reaper's sickle. Instructive and beautiful 
emblem of that more precious seed of the word 
of God which is sown in the heart of man by 
God's regenerating work ! It is at first small, 
feeble, tender, scarcely perceptible, like the first 
shoots of the grain in the earth. It may be the 



NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 35 

early impressions upon a child's mind listening 
to his mother's gentle admonition and familiar 
instruction. Or it may be a conviction lodged 
in the soul under some melting or alarming 
sermon. Or it may be a serious reflection oc- 
casioned by some painful visitation of Provi- 
dence. Grod has various methods of entering 
by his grace into the soul of the unconverted sin- 
ner. The seed may he long like the grain in 
the earth before any sign of vegetable life is per- 
ceptible, yet all this while the vital process may 
be going on. At length it rises above the ground 
and growth is visible, which continues till the 
result already described is apparent. But like 
that, in its earlier stages it needs the greatest 
watchfulness and care, for it is peculiarly sus- 
ceptible of injury and destruction. 

The last illustration I take up is that of a 
race. " The most splendid solemnities which 
ancient history hath transmitted to us were the 
Olympic games. Historians, orators, and poets 
abound with references to them, and their sub- 
limest imagery is borrowed from these renowned 
exercises. The games were solemnized every 
fifth year by an infinite concourse of people from 



36 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

almost all parts of the world. They were 
observed with the greatest pomp and magnifi- 
cence ; hecatombs of victims were slain in hon- 
or of the heathen deities, and Elis was a scene 
of universal festivity and joy. "We find that the 
most formidable and opulent sovereigns of those 
times were competitors for the Olympic crown. 
Even the lords of imperial Rome and emperors 
of the world entered their names among the 
candidates, and contended for the envied palm ; 
judging their felicity completed, and the career 
of all human glory and greatness happily ter- 
minated, if they could but interweave the Olym- 
pic garland with the laurels they had purchased 
in the fields of war." Alas for the littleness of 
earthly ambition and the narrow range of hu- 
man vanity ! It is not to be wondered at that 
an institute so celebrated should be employed 
by the sacred writers to illustrate the sublimer 
objects which they had to propose, and to stim- 
ulate the desires which they were anxious to 
awaken. Hence the impressive language of the 
apostle : " Know ye not that they which run 
in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize ? 
So run, that ye may obtain. And every man 



NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 37 

that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
things. Now they do it to obtain a corrupt- 
ible crown ; but we an incorruptible." 1 Cor. 
9 : 24, 25. No subject could be more familiar 
than this to the minds of the Corinthians, who 
were often spectators of similar games celebrat- 
ed upon the isthmus on which their city was 
situated, and hence denominated the Isthmian. 
Among these games the foot-race sustained a 
distinguished place. To this, express allusion 
is made by the apostle in writing to the He- 
brews, among whom these national festivi- 
ties had been introduced by Herod the Great. 
" Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about 
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay 
aside every weight, and the sin which doth so 
easily beset us, and let us run with patience 
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus 
the author and finisher of our faith." Heb. 
12 : 1, 2. Every expression in these two pas- 
sages is allusive and instructive. The enrolled 
competitor underwent for several months — like 
the men who engage in those disgraceful feats, 
our prize fights — a rigid system of physical 
training. Hence the expression, " He that striv 



38 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

eth for the mastery is temperate in all things" 
The candidates were obliged to keep in the 
course marked out, and to observe all the rules 
prescribed; wherefore it is said, "If a man 
strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned ex- 
cept he strive lawfully" 2 Tim. 2 : 5. The 
racers laid aside their garments and ran nearly 
naked. Hence the exhortation, "Let us lay 
aside every iveight " — every unnecessary care, 
every lust both of the flesh and of the mind— 
"and the sin which doth so easily beset us." 
The race was carried on amidst an immense 
crowd of spectators; hence the language, "We 
also are compassed about with so great a cloud 
of witnesses" The prize was merely honorary, 
consisting only of a chaplet of leaves, which 
withered ere it was worn; hence it is said, 
" They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but 
we an incorruptible" How finely does this 
illustrate that sublime passage in the epistle to 
the Philippians : " Not as though I had already 
attained, either were already perfect ; but I fol- 
low after, if that I may apprehend that for which 
also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ. Breth- 
ren, I count not myself to have apprehended ; 



NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 39 

but this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things which are before, I press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus." Phil. 3 : 12, 14. Every term 
here employed refers to the ancient foot-race, 
and the whole passage beautifully represents 
the ardor which fired the competitors when 
engaged in the contest. 

Such, and so impressive is the description 
given us by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, 
of the nature of religion — of the Christian life ; 
and it is sufficient to make all somewhat 
anxious about their own state, and to reveal 
the utter worthlessness and hollowness of the 
pretensions of many to the possession of true 
piety. Does not this illustrative figure set 
forth more forcibly and vividly than any mere 
language could do, that the Christian life is a 
state of self-denial, intense desire, deep so- 
licitude ; of strenuous, unremitted, unwearied 
action ; and of constant progress ? How was 
the soul of the racer filled and fired with the 
hope of success ; how patiently were the 
necessary privations borne ; how was every 



40 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

muscle strained, and the speed quickened l* 
the uttermost, by the fear of defeat and the 
prospect of victory. Reader, whosoever you 
are whose eye shall wander over these pages, 
pause, I beseech you, and ponder this subject. 
This is the inspired description of religion, and 
must therefore be the correct one. Does your 
religion answer to this ? Know you aught of 
such solicitude for the salvation of your soul, 
such labor to attain it, as are implied in this 
representation ? Is your religion really a race ? 
Does your eye often gaze upon the crown of 
life, and your bosom swell with the mighty 
aspiration after glory, honor, and immortality ? 
Oh, do not deceive yourself. Look at this, 
there is something more than profession here ; 
something more than the easy and careless 
bearing of the Christian name which many 
exhibit. 

But it is progress that the subject leads us 
now especially to contemplate. The racer was 
not only in action, but in progress. It was 
with him not merely bounding off with a 
vigorous start, nor exerting himself to the 
uttermost of his strength for a part of the 



NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 41 

course, but a continual going onwards. Hence 
the beautiful language of the apostle, " For- 
getting the things that are behind, and reach- 
ing forth unto those which are before." One 
who was running in the ancient race would 
not stop to look back to see how much ground 
he had run over, or which of his companions 
had fallen or lingered on the way. He would 
keep his eye fixed on the goal and the prize, 
and strain every nerve to reach them. If his 
attention were diverted for a single moment, it 
might hinder his speed and might be the 
means of his losing the crown. Onward, on- 
ward, was the mighty impulse which stimu- 
lated him in his course. So was it with the 
apostle. He fixed his eye intently on the prize 
and allowed no past attainments as a Christian, 
or success as a minister, to make him linger 
on the way. So must it be with us. No 
measure of knowledge, of faith, or holiness, 
must satisfy us, but we must be ever making 
advances in the divine life. 

Thirdly, if any thing more be necessary to 
convince us of the necessity of progress, con- 
sider scriptural rebukes. How often did our 



42 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

Lord reprove his disciples for the infantine 
feebleness of their faith ; and with what just 
severity did the apostle reproach the believing 
Hebrews for their want of progress. " "When," 
said he, "for the time ye ought to be teachers, 
ye have need that one teach you again which 
be the first principles of the oracles of God ; 
and have become such as have need of milk, 
and not of strong meat." Heb. 5 : 12. Could 
any thing be more reproachful of their culpable 
negligence, their shameful indolence, their 
voluntary backwardness in seeking after divine 
knowledge? They were babes when they 
ought to have been, and might have been, of 
full and matured strength. They were con- 
tent with the very rudiments of Christianity, 
the. alphabet of religion. It satisfied them just 
to have light enough to grope after salvation, 
and to walk on in dim twilight. Alas, alas, 
how many are like them. How many are con- 
tent with the veriest elements of knowledge 
and experience. Talk with them, observe them 
years after they have made a profession of relig- 
ion, and you will find them possessed of only 
the crudest notions and the most unsettled 



NECESSITY OF rROGHESS. 43 

feelings. They are no farther on in the divine 
life than they were ; yea, they have gone back. 
Read also the pungent rebukes of our Lord 
to the churches in the Apocalypse. He thus 
addresses the church at Ephesus. "I know 
thy works, and thy laboi, and thy patience, 
and how thou canst not bear them which are 
evil ; and thou hast tried them which say they 
are apostles and are not, and hast found them 
liars : and hast borne, and hast patience, and 
for my name's sake hast labored, and hast 
not fainted." How exalted a character ; how 
rich a piety ; how fine an eulogium ! Surely 
there is nothing here to condemn. Yes, there 
is. Mark what follows. " Nevertheless, I 
have somewhat against thee, because thou hast 
left thy first loveP See that. Dwell upon it. 
No attainments, no eminence can compensate 
for a decline of " first love." Christ will allow 
no plea of extenuation to be put in ; much less 
any defence to be set up. Hence what follows, 
" Remember, therefore, from whence thou art 
fallen, and repent, and do thy first works ; or 
else I will come unto thee quickly, and will 
remove thy candlestick out of his place, except 



44 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

thou repent." Rev. 2 : 5. But perhaps it will 
be said, all that Christ required in this case 
was that they should only recover lost ground, 
return to their former state, and continue as 
they were. Ah, but what must have been 
their first love, when their diminished affection 
was so great ? What must have been their 
first works, when their secondary ones were so 
signal? And moreover the rebuke did not 
necessarily imply that they were to be satisfied 
with even this. They had declined just be- 
cause they had neglected to advance, and it 
was therefore strongly implied that they must 
advance in order that they might not again 
recede. 

If these things do not prove the necessity of 
progress, it is hopeless to prove any thing. 
"We should give to them their due weight and 
act under their influence. 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

You. have now learnt from the word of God 
the necessity of progress ? "What think you of 
it ? Has it ever thus occurred to you before ? 
Does it strike you now? Can you deny or 



NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 45 

doubt this necessity ? Can you be indifferent 
to it, or trifle with it ? Perhaps you have over- 
looked it. You have never entered into the 
subject ; but have had all your attention 
directed, and all your solicitude awakened to 
make a good beginning, a public profession, a 
favorable start. But is this all that is neces- 
sary ? Does this answer to the description of 
religion, as a race, a spring, a growing child, 
or tree ? Can you really satisfy yourself that 
your religion is real, if it be unattended with a 
conviction that it should be progressive ? Do, 
do study afresh, I beseech you, the representa- 
tions given in this chapter. Ask yourself the 
one question, u Am I laying aside every weight, 
and the sin that does so easily beset me, and 
so running the race that is set before me as to 
obtain the prize of eternal glory ?" Are you ? 
Is there that intense desire after the crown, 
that vigorous effort to obtain it, that eager 
hope to receive it, which shall impel you 
onward with the speed of the ancient racer ? 
Oh, are you convinced that it is not a faint 
endeavor, but a mighty conflict, that must gain 
eternal life ? Are you saying to yourself, "1 



46 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

must forget the tilings that are behind, and 
press toward the mark for the prize of my 
high calling? I cannot he satisfied to be 
always as I am. I pant to be holier." Again, 
I say, pause and pray. Read no more till you 
have entered your closet and have put up the 
prayer of faith for a deeper conviction of the 
necessity of progress. 



NATURE OF PROOREi: 47 

CHAPTER II. 

NATURE OF PROGRE E 

"What is in rel:_ 

Pre _ nly action, but moving onward. 

A door turning upon its hinges is in a state 
of morion, but it never advances. A chariot 
moving upon wheel- is not only in action, but 
goes onward. : some persons 

in religion resembles the former — there > 
act: advancement; they m: 

it is on hi n ge, not m wheels. rhey _ 

jgh, perhaps, even with regularity, the 
exercises of de 3th public and private. 

They may be mechanicall : and punc- 

tual, still they do not go forward. 

There ai erring forth the 

nature of progress. First, by repre 
the retaining fa 

een ma 
ohem with him into future life ami all 

condit: : 



4* CHRISTIAN PHOG-RESS. 

tions. Life itself is progressive and ever 
changing. Imagine the case of a youth who 
receives his first religious impressions, and 
assumes the religious character while at home 
with his parents. To prepare for future life, 
ho leaves his father's house either as an 
apprentice or a shopman. In too many cases, 
a change of scene produces a change of char- 
acter ; and religion, under the influence of the 
unfavorable circumstances in which he may 
now be placed, or by the power of temptation, 
declines, if it be not altogether abandoned. 
But in the case I am supposing, the youth 
holds fast his integrity, and amidst irreligious 
and scoffing companions maintains his stead- 
fastness and consistency. He bears opposition 
and insult with firmness, fortitude, and meek- 
ness. Here is progress. There may be no 
great increase of knowledge or of holiness, 
but what he had has been exposed to hard 
trials and has surmounted them, and this 
itself is growth, and great growth too. So of 
a daughter who remains at home : her profes- 
sion may have been assumed when very 
young, before her heart was susceptible of 



NATURE OF PB.OG-RESS. 49 

the corrupting influence of the world. The 
time arrives when the child passes into the 
girl and the girl into the young woman. In 
this transition, when she feels the desire of 
companionship, when her society is courted, 
and she is invited to parties and amusements, 
we often see sad instances of declension. 
Seriousness is gone, and little else than a mere 
profession is left. But in the case of real 
progress, the purpose to serve the Lord is 
unmoved, the resolve to come out from the 
world and he separate is unshaken. There is 
the same earnestness, seriousness, and decision 
as ever. Company, flattery, publicity, produce 
no alteration of conduct or character. There \ 
is a solicitude, not how nearly she can come . 
to the world and yet not he of it, hut how 1 
far she may recede from it without affected 
singularity, unnecessary precision, or a viola- 
tion of the courtesies of life. She is the same 
simple-minded Christian, the same decided 
follower of the Lamb, amidst the development 
of womanhood as she was in her teens. This 
is progress, great progress. To retain her first 
love amidst this change of circumstances is an 

Clir Pros. 4 



50 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

advance, "because it has been put to a new 
test, and has honorably passed the ordeal. 

A similar remark may be made in reference 
to the influence of our religion on the different 
relations of life. When young people who 
have parents living, are converted to God, it is 
of course their duty to let their religion influ- 
ence them as children. Religion is not only 
to make us better towards God, but better 
towards man ; and he who is really made 
better towards God, will infallibly be made 
better towards man; and if we are not im- 
proved in our conduct towards our fellow- 
creatures, there is a moral certainty we are 
not improved towards our Creator. There is 
progress when the great change is proved by 
persons being made better husbands or wives, 
better parents or children, better masters or, 
servants. It is a beautiful growth of godli- 
ness, when social excellence and all its blessed 
fruits are seen springing out of the stem oi 
piety. Oh, to see the prodigal son brought 
back by religion to his father's arms and home ; 
or the unkind and unfaithful husband won 
back by his piety to the woman whom he had 



NATURE OF PROORESS. 5} 

oppressed and insulted ; or the faithless ser- 
vant, like Onesimus, reclaimed by his conver- 
sion from dishonesty and injustice. Show me 
the professing Christian whose social character 
is as unlovely after profession as it was before, 
and though there may be an increase of 
knowledge and of some other tilings connected 
with religion, there is no progress. 

Then, when the youth arrives at manhood, 
and carries his religion with him also into 
business, and amidst all its cares, temptations, 
and perplexities, holds fast his personal godli- 
ness and unites the Christian tradesman with 
the Christian professor, letting his liglit so 
shine before men that they seeing his good 
works glorify God, there is progress ; for alas, 
alas, how many who, while in the capacity of 
a servant, maintain a conscience void of offence 
both towards Grod and man, and keep up a 
regard to the one thing needful, lose nearly 
all the power of religion, either as a principle 
or a taste, when rdun^ed into the anxieties 
and snares of trade. 

Have not many women who, while young 
and unmarried, and unencumbered with do- 



d2 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

mestic cares, were earnest in piety, become 
careless, lukewarm, and indifferent, when sur- 
rounded with the scenes and occupied with the 
solicitudes of a wife, a mother, and a mistress? 
This, however, is not always the case, as our 
biography of pious women can amply testify. 
It is a beautiful sight to behold a young wife 
and mother retaining her attention to religion 
in all its earnestness and spirituality, and thus 
qualifying herself for her new situation by all 
the power of that godliness which she gained 
in single life. Here is eminent progress. 

Then what vicissitudes affect us in this w T orld. 
Some are raised to prosperity from low circum- 
stances, and lose their religion by little and 
little in the ascension, till it is all gone by 
the time they reach the summit. Rarely has it 
happened that men have not been the worse for 
prosperity ; rarer still, that they have been the 
better for it. "What an advance in godliness has 
he made, who retains his decision, his earnest- 
ness, his spirituality, his humility, amidst the 
rising tide of wealth, and who is the same man 
<n spirit after his success as he was before it. 

And so with adversity : to bear it with meek 



NATURE OF PROGRESS 53 

submission to the will of God ; to endure chas- 
tisement with all long-suffering and joyfulness ; 
to appear cheerful amidst surrounding gloom, 
hopeful amidst desponding circumstances, hap- 
py in Grod when there is nothing else to make 
us happy : he who does this has indeed made 
great advances in the divine life. 

But perhaps what we have hitherto con- 
sidered does not so completely bring out the 
idea of progress as another method of repre- 
sentation, since it is rather the progress of the 
Christian with religion, than in it — the reten- 
tion and manifestation of piety in various situ- 
ations, rather than the increase of piety itself. 
Still it is a necessary and most important part 
of the subject. "We now therefore take up 
latter view of the subject. 

There ought to be a growth in every thing 
that constitutes personal godliness. And as 
all true religion is based on knowledge, there 
should be an increase of this. Defects here, as 
we have already shown, were the occasion of 
the apostle's rebuke to the Hebrews. The in- 
crease of knowledge was much in the apostle's 
prayers for the churches. Ephes. 1 : 17-23 ; 



54 CHRISTIAN PROORESS. 

3 : 18, 19 ; Phil. 1:9; Col. 1 : 9. In all these 
passages, to which it is hoped you will turn, you 
will see how earnest St. Paul was that his 
converts should advance in knowledge. Apart 
from, or without this, there can he hut slow 
advances in any thing else. This is clear from 
the apostle's exhortation, " Grow in grace and 
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Je- 
sus Christ." Thus you see growth in grace and 
growth in knowledge are inseparably connected. 
Light is essentially necessary to natural vege- 
tation ; so it is to that which is spiritual. Young 
converts are sometimes so taken up with re- 
ligious feeling and doings as to forget the im- 
portance, even in reference to these, of knowing* 
By a growth in knowledge, then, we mean an 
increasing understanding of the contents, and 
their true meaning, of the word of God ; a real 
advance in acquaintance with biblical truth. 
Not only an acquaintance with systems of relig- 
ious opinion, but with the design and meaning 
of the books and chapters and texts of Scrip- 
ture ; an ever-growing disposition and ability to 
read the sacred word with intelligence, discrim- 
ination, and self-application. 



NATURE OF PROG-RESS. bo 

There are three or four matters which may- 
be considered the very substance of the Bible, 
and wiih which every Christian should make 
himself as familiar as his time and circumstan- 
ces will allow. The Person and work of our^ 
Lord Jesus Christ, as Crod, man, Mediator, 
or " God in Christ reconciling the world to him- 
self," is the grand peculiarity of the Bible. It 
was dimly shadowed forth under the Old Tes- 
tament, and is clearly revealed in the New. 
Christ is the alpha and omega of revelation ; 
you cannot understand the Bible if you are ig- 
norant of this. The true and proper divinity ot 
Christ's person is the corner-stone of Christian 
doctrine. Compare Psalm 102 : 25-27, with 
Heb. 1 : 10 ; Psalm 45 : 6, with Heb. 1:8; Isa- 
iah 6, with John 12 : 37-41 : Isaiah 45 : 23, &1, 
with Rom. 14 : 9-11. Read also, Matt. 18 : 20 ; 
John 1 : 1, 10-14 ; 8 : 56-58 ; 10 : 30 ; 14 : 8-10 ; 
17:5; 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:5-11: 
Col. 1: 16 ; 2: 9 ; 1 Tim. 3: 16 ; Heb. 1; 1 John, 
5 : 20 ; Rev. 1. These are only a portion of the 
scriptures that testify the true and proper di- 
vinity of our Lard. Do give yourselves time 
and leisure to turn to them, to study them, to 



56 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

treasure them up in your mind. But it is Christ 
as Mediator, also you are to consider, uniting 
in a way we cannot comprehend the divine and 
human nature in his one glorious person. As 
Mediator, he died in the sinner's stead as his 
substitute, and by his death upon the cross 
made an atonement for the sinner's transgres- 
sion. How clearly, how gloriously, how unan 
swerably does the doctrine of atonement shine 
forth in that wonderful passage, Rom. 3 : 24-26. 
There, propitiation, which is the same in mean- 
ing as atonement, is declared to be the very 
end of Christ's incarnation and death. Three 
times, in the compass of two verses, is it de- 
clared, that the demonstration of Qo&'$ justice 
is the end of Christ's sufferings unto death. 
The whole gospel scheme is a manifestation of 
mercy in a way of righteousness. In redemp- 
tion, G-od shows love to us in a way that eclipses 
neither the glory of his character, his laws, nor 
his government. Understand wfell the design 
of Christ's death, of that mysterious economy of 
a vicarious sacrifice — that it was to harmonize 
the salvation of the sinner with the honor of God 
and this could only be done by an atonement. 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 57 

At the same time understand well the doctrine 
of atonement. This means, that Jesus Christ 
having died in the place and stead of guilty 
man, it is for the sake and out of regard to his 
death as the meritorious consideration that God 
pardons the sinner ; and that by this scheme of 
divine wisdom and mercy, the same purpose 
in regard to justice and to the maintenance of 
the principles of moral government will be ac- 
complished, as the punishment of the sinner 
would have done. And it is in this view that 
we see the connection between the divinity of 
Christ and the doctrine of atonement. The sac- 
rifice of one who was a mere man, or a creature 
however highly exalted, could not be as clear a 
display of God's public justice as the punish- 
ment of the whole multitude of pardoned sin- 
ners would have been. There was required a 
sacrifice of a very peculiar nature. Here we 
have it, in Christ. He was truly and properly 
man that he might suffer and die, which God 
could not do ; he was God, and thus the suffer- 
ings of the manhood acquired from his divinity 
a character of infinite merit and worth. For 
a proof of this doctrine we refer you to Isaiah 



58 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

53 — to the whole Levitical law as compared 
with the epistle to the Hebrews, especially to 
Leviticus 16, compared with Heb. 9, 10. Read 
also Matt. 20 : 28 ; Rom. 5 : 9 to end ; 1 Cor. 
15 : 3 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 ; 1 Peter, 1 : 18, 20 ; 2 : 24 ; 
1 John, 4 : 10 ; Rev. 1 : 5. These scriptures are 
only a few of what might be selected to set 
forth the doctrine of the atonement — a doctrine 
not only momentous as an article of faith, but 
infinitely precious as a basis of hope. 

Another subject which it is immensely im- 
portant for a young Christian to understand is, 
God's method of bestowing the blessings of 
salvation upon the sinner — that is, the doctrine 
>oi justification by faith. "Who are the per- 
sons that will receive salvation, and what is the 
way in which they receive it ? This has been 
plainly set forth in the former treatise — I 
mean " The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation." 
By the doctrine of justification by faith, we 
mean, that when a sinner is convinced of his 
transgression, is truly penitent, and believes in 
the testimony of the gospel that " Grod so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not 



NATURE OF PROaRE&S. 59 

perish, but have everlasting life," he is pardon- 
ed, received to the divine favor, and entitled 
to eternal life, not on account of his own senti- 
ments, feelings, actions, or any thing of his 
own, but entirely for the sake of the blood and 
righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
are in such sense imputed to him that he re- 
ceives the full benefit of them as if they were 
his own. Justification by faith is the answer 
to that momentous question, " How shall man 
be just with Grod ?" And the reply is, not by 
works of his own, but by faith in the work, of 
another, that is, Christ. He must have a right- 
eousness in which to stand before a righteous 
and a holy, as well as a merciful G-od. He has 
no such righteousness of his own. " Christ is 
the end of the law for righteousness unto him." 
" He of G-od is made unto him righteousness." 
This is justification, the same in substance as 
pardon, with this difference, that the word 
pardon simply expresses only the blessing we 
receive, w T hile the word justification includes 
the idea of the way in which it comes to us, 
that is, by righteousness. There is also this 
difference ■ justification signifies our entrance 



60 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

upon the state of pardon or adoption ; pardon 
may be often repeated towards one who is in 
this condition of acceptance. 

It is of much consequence to a right under, 
standing of divine truth, and to the proper 
growth in knowledge and in grace, to observe 
and ever maintain the distinction between jus- 
tification and sanctification. The fall brought 
in two evils upon man : guilt upon his con- 
science, whereby he lost God's favor, and be- 
came obnoxious to his wrath; and depravity 
into his nature, whereby he lost God's image, 
and became earthly, sensual, and devilish. To 
be restored to bliss, in other words to be saved, 
he needs to have his guilt pardoned and his 
nature renewed. This is provided for in the 
gospel scheme of redemption. By the blood and 
righteousness of Christ, our sins are pardoned ; 
and by the work of the Holy Spirit our hearts 
are renewed, our nature changed, and our lives 
sanctified. The work of the Spirit begins in 
regeneration, and is carried on in progressive 
sanctification. The difference, therefore, be- 
tween justification and sanctification is very 
great and obvious, and must ever be maintained 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 61 

/ 

in our views. Justification is the work of Christ 
for us ; sanctification the work of the Spirit in 
us : justification is perfect at once ; sanctifica- 
tion is progressive : justification is before sancti- 
fication, and sanctification is the fruit of justi- 
fication ; consequently the evidence of our justi- 
fication is in our sanctification. The first joy 
and peace of the sinner come to him by justi- 
fication ; his peace, joy, and bliss as a believer 
flow in great measure from his sanctification : 
justification is in order to sanctification, rather 
than sanctification in order to justification^ 
These remarks may seem to some to be mere 
theological technicalities. But they are not so. 
They enter into the very vitalities of personal 
godliness. For the study of the doctrine of jus- 
tification — and it ought to be a subject of study, 
deep study and progressive intelligence — the 
following portions of Scripture should be de- 
voutly perused : Isaiah 43 ; Jer. 33 : 15, 16 ; 
Rom. 3, 4, 5, 10 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 30, 31 ; 2 Cor. 
5 : 21 ; Gal. 2, 3, 4 ; Phil. 3. 

These are the chief matters to be investigat- 
ed in perusing the word of Grod. Not that the 
attention is to be exclusively confined to these 



62 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

subjects. Nothing in the Bible is unworthy 
the attention of a Christian. The ancient and 
interesting histories of the books of Moses, and 
the subsequent chronicles of the Jewish nation ; 
the lofty devotions of the Psalmist ; the Prov- 
erbs of Solomon ; and the sublime and beauti- 
ful books of the Prophets, should also be studi- 
ed; for " all Scripture," and this expression refers 
to the Old Testament, " is given by inspiration 
of Grod, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; 
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
furnished unto all good works."* 

It is not, however, in the doctrinal or his- 
torical parts of the word of Grod only, that the 
young Christian is to increase his knowledge. 
In religion there is nothing purely scientific : 
all, all is practical. Every part is " a doctrine 
according to godliness." It is declared in the 
passage just quoted, to be the design of the 

* I know of no volume more excellent for a knowledge of 
the general contents of the Bible, and the history of the texts, 
than " Nicholl's Help to the Reading of the Bible ;" except it 
be Home's noble work. But the former is only one small 
volume, whereas the latter is too large and expensive, except 
for students or wealth v Christians. 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 63 

Bible "that the man of Grod may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 
Truth is but a means to an end, and that end 
is holiness. Every one of us ought to study 
our Bibles with that prayer upon our lips, 
" Sanctify me by thy truth ; thy word is truth." 
We should grow in our knowledge of the char- 
acter of God, that we may resemble it — in the 
perfection of the law, that we may be con- 
formed to it — in the example of Jesus, that we 
may be more like it. There should be a con- 
viction that we are not yet as perfect in what 
we do know as we should be, as well as that 
there is much yet that we do not know. A de- 
sire to know merely to know, is curiosity ; but 
a desire to know in order to do, is sanctity. 

There ought, then, to be progress in know- 
ledge. No Christian should be satisfied with 
mere rudiments. And yet the great bulk seek 
for nothing more. It is really humiliating and 
painful to preachers to find how little, in the 
way of imparting knowledge, is effected by all 
their sermons. No students seem satisfied 
with so little increase of ideas as those who 
profess to be in the school of Christ. Useful- 



61 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

ness, happiness, and true religious dignity are 
thus hindered. And not only so, but religion 
itself is stunted and starved, and its lustre 
diminished. And even they who do read and 
think, peruse only, or chiefly, the works of 
men. Never was there an age when Bibles 
were more widely circulated, and never an age 
when by many who possess them they were 
less read. Magazines, periodicals, and books 
of all kinds have come in upon us like a flood, 
which in many cases has almost swept away 
the Bible. After all, it is Bible truth from its 
own source that is the concentrated nutriment 
of the divine life ; and it will be found that 
they are usually the strongest, healthiest, and 
most- rapidly growing of the children of God, 
who live most upon the sincere, that is, the 
pure and " unadulterated' 9 milk of the word of 
Grod. The works of men are very useful in 
their place when they lead us to the word of 
G-od, but too many persons allow themselves 
to be kept away by them from the fountains of 
pure truth. For the growth of the church of 
God generally, it needs to be led back more 
to the sacred Scriptures. 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 65 

Decision of character must "be strengthened. 
At first many a true Christian is a little hesi- 
tating and halting. His opinions are fluctuat- 
ing. His purposes are irresolute. His steps 
are faltering. He is timid ; afraid of the 
laughter of some, and the frowns of others. 
He is fearful of being made the subject of 
remark, and especially of critical and cynical 
remark. He cannot encounter reproach ; and 
is not yet bold enough to say, " Laugh on; 
none of these things move me ; my mind is 
made up." Sometimes he is too regardful of 
his worldly interests. He is a little too flexible 
and compliant. He makes concessions which 
consistency of principle forbids. Companion- 
ship has too much power over him. He has 
not acquired grace yet to assert manfully his 
independence. Hence he is in great danger. 
This state of mind is perilous in the extreme. 
If he do not grow out of it, it will grow upon 
him. He is likely to draw back, and to give 
up all. See, then, the importance of his 
immediately seeking to grow in firmness, reso- 
luteness, determinateness. This was the first 
thing which the apostle enjoined next to belief* 

Chr frog 



66 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

"Add to your faith virtue," or as the word 
signifies, "courage" — courage to assert and 
maintain your principles before all observation, 
and against all opposition. Put on at once the 
courage of a hero, and the constancy of a 
martyr. Prove that piety, though contrary to 
ambition after military heroism, is itself the 
most heroic spirit in the world. Acquire more' 
and more of the courage which dares to be 
singular in goodness. Be more insensible to 
the world's favor, frown, or smile. Religion 
does not encourage or foster a haughty spirit 
of independence or a total disregard of the 
world's opinion, but it does teach us so to re- 
spect the testimony of the Bible and the dictates 
of conscience as to disregard all censures or 
remarks that are opposite to these. The tree 
in its growth strikes its roots deeper and deeper 
into the earth, and thus strengthens the hold 
it has upon the soil, so that it is far less likely 
to be blown down by the raging winds. In 
like manner let your conviction strike deeper 
and deeper into the truth, so that you shall 
not be thrown down by the conflicting opinions 
or the stormy passions o^ men. 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 67 

Faith is susceptible of growth. It was the 
prayer of the apostles, "Lord, increase our 
faith." And we read continually in the Bible 
of "strong" and "weak faith." Faith may be 
considered either as general, believing the 
whole word of God, which is the faith spoken 
of in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews ; or 
particular, as having respect to the person and 
work of Christ. As regards the former, there 
is ample room in most minds for growth. 
Difficulties, after the first impressions and con- 
victions are over, soon arise and present them- 
selves to the young and inexperienced Chris- 
tian, and often multiply in his path. He is 
perplexed and knows not how to get rid of 
them. He is sometimes staggered. His mind 
is uncomfortable. Now, it is obviously his 
duty and equally his privilege to put aside 
these obstacles. Of course he should pray for 
divine grace, and, in the language already 
quoted, should say, "Lord, increase my faith." 
But this is not all he should do. He should 
read as well as pray. His mind should grow 
in acquaintance with the evidence of divine 
revelation. He should ponder upon the miracles 



68 CHRISTIAN PROCURESS. 

of Christ and his apostles — the accomplishment 
of prophecy in the person and work of the 
Saviour — the history of the Jews — the success 
of the gospel in its first ages by fishermen, 
not only without, hut against the powers of 
the earth — the sublime doctrine and pure 
morality of the Bible — the lofty views it gives 
of G-od, and its correct representations of human 
nature — the power it has in not only changing 
the aspects of society, but doing this by the 
renovation of the individual man — the miserable 
condition of humanity beyond the range and 
influence of Christianity, showing the need 
men have of a revelation — with the pretensions 
of false religions, proving the expectation they 
entertain that a revelation will be given. Now 
all these should become the subject of deep 
thought and reflection, by which the opposing 
difficulties will appear light and little. Such 
studies are too much neglected by many per- 
sons, who are contented to take their religion 
upon trust, or to go on their way perplexed by 
the flippant cavils of infidelity which are so 
common in this age of scepticism and unbelief. 
True it is. that their own conversion ever will 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 69 

be the strongest evidence of the truth of reve- 
lation to the great mass of the people ; yet an 
acquaintance with these, its historic proofs, 
will be of great service, and yield great pleas- 
ure in their religious course. 

But there must be a deep solicitude to grow 
in that special faith which has direct reference 
to the Saviour and his work. Christ is the 
chief object proposed to the sinner in the New 
Testament. The eye that sweeps round the 
whole circle of divine truth must rest in him 
as the centre. Faith is confidence, and con- 
fidence may be weak, partial, and wavering ; 
or it may be undivided, firm, and settled. 
The young Christian, though convinced that 
Christ is the only ground of hope and the only 
source of salvation, though upon the whole 
resting upon him and expecting all things 
from him, is not yet brought, perhaps, to that 
full and entire turning away from every .thing 
else, and that full and entire resting on the 
Lord Jesus which an intelligent and strong 
faith requires. He looks much to his frames 
and feelings, and his various experiences ; as a 
consequence, his peace rises and falls on this 



70 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

thermometer. A little more freedom in prayer, 
or enjoyment under a sermon, or elasticity of 
feeling in his ordinary course, raises him to the 
mount; while a little less sinks him to the 
valley. His opinion of his state is as variable 
as his emotions, and to a considerable extent 
is decided by them. Thus, his course is an 
alternation of gloom and gladness. "What does 
all this indicate, brut that the eye is not upon 
Christ, but upon self? What does it prove, but 
that faith in Jesus is weak and wavering — 
that the mind does not yet see so clearly His 
finished work as the ground of hope and source 
of joy as it should do ? The soul is not yet 
weaned from self-righteousness, but is almost 
unconsciously to itself going about "to establish 
its own righteousness," if not of works, yet of 
feelings. Now, faith will as certainly take us 
off from dependence upon the latter as upon 
the former. Nor is this all, for the soul weak 
In faith is looking about to many other things 
for strength and holiness, instead of Jesus. It 
does not yet see so clearly as it should do, that 
"He is made of Grod unto us wisdom, and 
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 71 

tion." 1 Cor. 1 : 31. Friends, ordinances, self- 
imposed rules of conduct, are all appealed to 
with this petition, "Help me ;" and in proper 
measure and season, it is quite right to use 
these helps, but not to the neglect of faith in 
Jesus. A Christian who has grown in faith 
has risen above this, and is enabled to say, and 
to rejoice as he says it, "I now see that all ful- 
ness of blessing is in Christ, and that it is from 
that fulness I am to receive, and grace for 
grace. I am now weaned from self, and am 
no longer looking to it for any thing but 
conviction and condemnation, but am looking 
wholly and always to Jesus. My justification, 
sanctification, consolation, stability, and per- 
severance, are all from him, just as all the sap 
which supports the life and promotes the fruit- 
fulness of the branch is derived from its vital 
union with the tree. Being safely built upon 
him as my foundation, I mingle nothing with 
his work, and find continual matter of rejoic- 
ing. Whatever view I take of his person and 
work, whether I think of his divinity or per- 
fect humanity, his atonement, intercession, or 
example, comfort presents itself. Grace has 



7;? CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

made me willing to live out of myself, upon 
the fulness of Jesus. In him I have ivhat I 
want, all I want." This is strong faith, and 
what an advance from that feeble, fluctuating 
confidence which marked the first stages of 
religious experience. This is true evangel- 
ical confidence, to look for joy, holiness, and 
strength ; and to look for all from Christ. 
Then is faith settled and strong when we are 
brought to say, "For me to live is Christ," or 
as it might be rendered, Christ is my life. 

Holiness is an essential part, yea, the very 
essence of personal godliness. This was the 
image of God in the soul of man at his creation, 
which man lost by the fall, and which it is the 
design of the work of redemption to restore. 
Gen. 1 : 26, 27, compared with Ephes. 4 : 22-24. 
Are we predestinated, it is that we might be 
holy. Ephes. 1 : 4. Are we called, it is with 
a " holy calling." 1 Thes. 4:7; 2 Tim. 1 : 9. 
Are we justified freely by God's grace, it is 
that we might be holy. Titus 3:7, 8. Are 
we afflicted, it is that we might be partakers 
of God's holiness. Heb. 12 : 10. The whole 
work of Christ has its end in holiness. He 



F PRO' 

M loved the church, and gave himself for ir ; 

use ir with the 
washing of water by the word, that he might 
present it to himself a glorious church, not hav- 
ing spot, cr wrinkle, or any such thing ; but 
that it should be holy and without blemi- 
Epli . 27 ; Titus 2 : 11-14. It is a v 

low and unworthy idea of the design of Christ's 
death, to conceive of it as only intended to save 
men from hell — to consider it as only designed 

them from becoming prisoners and felons, 
or from the ignominy of a public execution. 
His gracious purpose, in addition to this, was 
to m sons of God, and bright 

glorious resemblance: of their divine Parent. 
Holiness was the bliss of paradise before Adam 
fell : holiness will constitute the bliss of heav 
All the inhabitants of that state are holy ; ail 
its occupations are holy ; all its influence is 
holy. Hence the indispensable necessity 
holiness in the Christian character, and the 
growth of holiness in the Christian life. But 
what is holiness ? The purification of the heart 
the Spirit of Crod from the love of sin, and 
the life from the practice of it. But nh 



74 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

a negative view of it, there is also a positive 
one. Holiness is the love of Grod, for his own 
sake ; and of man, for God's sake. It is the 
separation of the soul from the works of the 
flesh, and the substitution in their place of the 
fruits of the Spirit. Gal. 5 : 19-26. It is that 
blessed work by which the wilderness of an 
unrenewed heart, where grow the briar and 
the bramble, the thorn and the nettle, is chang- 
ed into the garden of the Lord, which bears the 
fruits of righteousness. Isaiah 55 : 13. It is 
obvious that this is susceptible of all degrees, 
and therefore of continued increase. One man 
may be holier than another, and the same man 
may be holier at one time than another. Take, 
for example, any one single lust either of the 
flesh or of the mind, any one besetting sin ; 
and the gradual mortification of that is a growth 
in grace. If a man have less pride, or covetous- 
ness, or malice, or impurity of imagination, 
than he had at one time, and more of the op- 
posite disposition, there is progress. Now, tfa 
is great need to say to the recent convert, " Fol- 
low after holiness" for he is so likely to be 
taken up with the joy of pardon and the peac^e 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 75 

of faith as somewhat to forget the necessity of 
sanctification. At first his views of sin are both 
defective and superficial. Many things in prac- 
tice are wrong which he does not at first think 
to be so ; and of the depravity of his heart he 
has very faint notions at all ; while also he sees 
but little of the exceeding sinfulness of sin in 
general. He must therefore seek to increase 
in the love of God, the hatred of all sin, and 
the entire consecration of his heart and life to 
the service of God. "While God is calling to 
him out of heaven, and saying, " Be ye holy, 
for I am holy," he must reply by sincere and 
earnest prayer, " Purge me with hyssop, and I 
shall be clean : wash me, and I shall be whiter 
than snow. Create in me a clean heart, and 
renew a right spirit within me." Psa. 41 : 7, 11. 
Be not satisfied then without a growth in 
holiness of which you shall yourself possess the 
most entire consciousness, and which shall be 
equally evident to others. Holiness is hap- 
piness, and the more you have of the former 
the more you will undoubtedly enjoy of the 
latter. Enter more and more fully into the 
bliss of finding the life of God in the soul con- 



76 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS 

timxally increasing in vigor and in operatic 1. 
It is a sign of growth in holiness when the 
mind is not only more enlightened in the na- 
ture, evil, and existence of sin in general, hut 
when we become more aware of little sins 
which did not formerly strike us ; when the 
eye of the mind is more microscopic, and can 
detect sins which we formerly did not see, and 
especially when we al*e more affected by them. 
When also we are more solicitous to find out 
such unknown sins ; when we search for them 
ourselves, taking the candle of the Lord, and 
going down into the depths of our own heart to 
bring to light what we did not before discover ; 
and when not being satisfied with our own 
searching, we carry the matter to Grod, and in 
the language of David pray thus, " Search me, 
Grod, and know my thoughts ; try me, and 
know my ways, and see if there be any wick- 
ed way in me." When we are afraid of little 
sins — sins of ignorance, of inadvertence, and 
of carelessness ; when the soul is so anxious to 
be holy that it would not have even secret 
faults kept within it ; when the conscience, 
like the apple of the eye, becomes so tender 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 77 

that it cannot bear the slightest touch — this, 
this is growth in holiness. Blessed is that soul 
which is thus assimilating more and more 
closely to the image of God. 

Spirituality of mind and heavenliness of 
affection are essential elements in true piety : 
"to be spiritually-minded is life and peace." 
And it is also the state and character of the 
Christian to live with his thoughts, affections, 
and aspirations centering in God and heaven. 
How strong an expression is that of the apostle, 
and how little is it known by the generality of 
professors : " If ye then be risen with Christ, 
seek those things which are above, where 
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set 
your affection on things above, not on things 
on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is 
hid with Christ in God." Col. 3 : 1-3. Pause, 
reader, and ponder upon this impressive lan- 
guage. This is the mind of a real Christian; 
this is the experience of a child of God. It 
is to this that renewing grace is designed to 
bring us. "What know you of this spiritual 
renovation, this strange mixture of death and 
life in the same soul ; this holy paradox ? iVh, 



78 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

what ! Know and understand that vital piety 
is something more than an abstinence from 
crimes, vices, and sins ; yes, and something 
more than the practice of the conventional 
virtues, not only of the world, but of the 
church. It is a spiritual, heavenly mind — an 
unearthly disposition. The thoughts and af- 
fections, by a holy spontaneity, rise up and flow 
to God, like the ebullition of a spring, without 
external force or instrumentality. Divine 
things possess attractions which of themselves 
draw the soul towards them. There needs not 
sermons, or books, or places, or occasions, to 
engage the mind and heart that way. There 
is an inward taste which, like any- other taste, 
is itself a predisposition for them. The soul, 
of its own accord, self-moved, self-drawn, goes 
to Christ, to God, to heaven. This is growing 
in grace, and increasing with all the increase 
of Grod ; this is walking more and more by 
faith, when spiritual, divine, invisible objects 
acquire a greater power over the soul ; when 
there needs but the slightest touch to set 
the mind in spiritual motion, and the Chris- 
tian feels increasingly that his element is 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 79 

devotion and his native air the atmosphere of 
piety. 

The Christian temper is one great part 01 
true religion; and by this, as distinguished 
from what has gone before, I mean the passive 
virtues and amiable affections of the heart, or 
what is called "the meekness and gentleness 
of Christ." Or to refer to another term so often 
employed by the apostle, I mean the charity 
so beautifully described in the thirteenth chap- 
ter of the first epistle to the Corinthians. It 
is of immense importance that every one be- 
ginning the divine life should study both that 
chapter and our Lord's sermon upon the mount. 
These portions of holy writ fully and inten- 
tionally describe and set forth the Christian 
temper. Young professors, and indeed old ones 
too, sadly forget that love is the very essence 
of the Christian spirit : it is the very soul of 
practical religion — a love that represses the 
strong passions 'of the heart and the boisterous 
conduct of the life — a love that makes us cau- 
tious against giving offence, and backward to 
receive it — a love that renders us forbearing 
and forgiving — a love that produces a calm, 



80 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

equable mind, and which speaks in soft, kind, 
and gentle speech — a love that dreads the in- 
fliction of pain and covets the communication 
of happiness. " Oh divine and heavenly char- 
ity, thou offspring of that glorious Being of 
whom it is said, ' God is love ;' thou of whom 
the Lord Jesus Christ was hut an impersona- 
tion and embodiment ; thou that art another 
name for the gospel, and the very end and ful- 
ness of the law ; thou benign and gentle spirit, 
how little is thy nature understood and thy 
claims admitted, not only in the world, but in 
the church : when shall thy sway be felt by 
all who profess to bow to thy sceptre, but who 
withhold from thee their allegiance, and exhibit 
so little of thy rule ?" How peaceful and ami- 
able ; how courteous and affable ; how tender 
and sympathetic ; how kind and obliging, 
would this love make us to all around. What 
lovely specimens of christianized humanity, 
and what attractive recommendations of it, 
would this make us. Here, here is the spirit 
in which to make progress. Too many have 
no idea of the subjection of their temper to the 
influence of religion. And yet what is changed, 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 81 

if the temper be not ; or of what use is any 
other change ? If a man is as passionate, ma- 
licious, resentful, sullen, moody, or morose, 
after his conversion as before it, what is he con- 
verted from or to? " Let the mind of Jesus 
be in you," said the apostle ; and in another 
place, " If any man have not the spirit of Christ, 
he is none of his." Now, the mind of Jesus 
was loving, kind, meek, gentle, and forgiving ; 
and unless we have these virtues we have not, 
cannot have, the mind of Jesus. We must no 4 * 
take up the idea that temper is so constitutional, 
a thing so unconquerable, that we may as well 
think to alter the shape and complexion of our 
body, as to attempt to change the natural tem- 
per of the mind. It can be improved — it has 
been in millions of instances — it must be. We 
must all of us grow more and more in the 
" whatsoever things are lovely" We must 
set out in the Christian career with the deter- 
mination, through grace, to eradicate the briar 
and bramble, the thorn and the nettle — those 
lacerating and stinging shrubs — and to plant 
in their room the ornamental fir, the odoriferous 
myrtle, and the fruitful vine. 

C.hr. Pro?. 6 



82 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

There is perhaps no sign of growth more de- 
cisive, nor any thing more desirable in itself, 
than the union of increasing holiness with a 
ivider view of Christian liberty. These two 
are sometimes dissociated, and we see, on the 
one hand, liberty degenerating into licentious- 
ness, and on the other, righteousness sinking 
into bondage. The freedom of the one is privi- 
lege in opposition to duty ; the thraldom of the 
other is duty to the neglect of privilege. Many 
an old, but corrupt, professor has abjured the 
obligations of the moral law, that he might en- 
joy, as he supposes, "the liberty wherewith 
Christ makes his people free ;" while many a 
young one has placed himself in spirit under 
the yoke of the ceremonial code, and brought 
himself into a slavery repugnant to the free 
and generous spirit of the gospel. It is as un- 
doubted a fact that "where the spirit of the 
Lord is there is liberty," as that there is holi- 
ness. Both passages in the same context are 
equally true, where it is said, " There is no 
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ;" 
but then "they walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit." " For the law of the Spirit of 



NATURE OF PROG-RESS. 83 

life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from 
the law of sin and death." This is in order 
"that the righteousness of the law might be 
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit." Rom. 8 : 1-4. How beauti. 
fully liberty and holiness are balanced in this 
passage. And how important is the exhorta- 
tion of the apostle, " Brethren, ye have been 
called to liberty ; only use not liberty for an oc- 
casion to the flesh." Gal. 5 : 13. By liberty, 
then, we understand, not only a freedom from 
the yoke, but also from the spirit, of the cere- 
monial law : the spirit of a child in opposition 
to that of a slave. In other words, serving (rod 
in a spirit of love, which casts out tormenting 
fears. Young Christians, who are not yet so 
enlightened and so settled in what are called 
the doctrines of grace, or of free justification 
through the righteousness of Christ, are a long 
time troubled with a legal spirit. There is a 
kind of superstitious punctiliousness in little 
things — things which are prescribed by human 
authority, or invented by hitman ingenuity, or 
borrowed from human examples, but not pre- 
scribed by the word of God. In the early 



84 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

stages of religious experience there is often an 
unenlightened and sickly tenderness of con- 
science, an excessive and shrinking sensibility, 
which not only subjects its possessor to a dep- 
rivation of lawful comforts and a large amount 
of very unnecessary pain, but which also in 
capacitates him for the vigorous and efficient 
discharge of duty. A man always hesitating, 
and fearing and trembling lest he has failed 
to execute in some minute particular the will 
of Grod, even when his intentions were the most 
pure and his efforts the most diligent and faith- 
ful, is but ill prepared either to enjoy his privi- 
leges as a child of God, or for encountering the 
various events and changes of the Christian 
life. He will experience little of that " joy of 
the Lord which is our strength," and go on 
his way in heaviness. He is the last to whom 
we should look for an illustration of that scrip- 
ture, " G-reat peace have they that love thy 
law, and nothing shall offend them." We 
should cultivate a filial spirit that shall enable 
us, amidst our numberless imperfections and 
failings, all of which must be mourned . and 
resisted, still cheerfully to enjoy our Christian 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 85 

privileges, and to persevere in the way of duty, 
not doubting that we shall be sustained with 
power from on high to lead a holy life, and that 
through the grace of Grod, and the merits oi 
Christ, all our deficiencies and errors will be 
mercifully forgiven, and we shall find accep- 
tance at the last. I know very well that the 
tendency of many is, in these days, to extend 
too widely, rather than to contract too narrow- 
ly, the circle of Christian liberty ; but in these 
cases, there is a proportionate diminution of 
holiness. The conduct is as little scrupulous 
in neglecting the weightier matters of the law, 
as it is in overlooking the lesser matters of hu- 
man imposition. There cannot be a darker 
sign for any person than to be for ever com- 
plaining of the strictness of religion, and endeav- 
oring to relax the bonds of spiritual obliga- 
tion under the notion of enjoying Christian 
liberty. It is a striking mark of progress in 
the divine life when we are brought to adopt, 
in intelligence and good faith, the apostle's rule 
of conduct for himself: " All things are lawful 
unto me, but all things are not expedient ; all 
things are lawful for me, but I will not be 



86 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

brought under the power of any." 1 Cor. 6 : 12. 
Instead of claiming, as many do, indulgence 
for acts in themselves unlawful because they 
are supposed to be beneficial in their effects* 
Paul was not .content even with the positive 
lawfulness of actions, unless to this was super- 
added a manifest tendency to the production 
of good, setting in no case these two qualities 
of morality and expediency in opposition to 
each other, much less making the inferior to 
overbalance that which is of greater force and 
value, but refusing to take a step when they 
did not coincide. He did not resolve, "I will 
perform those things that are expedient, though 
they be not lawful ;" but, " I will not venture 
even upon lawful actions, if they be not expedi- 
ent." Here is progress indeed, when with en- 
larged views of Christian liberty, there is at 
the same time an' increasing disposition to make 
that liberty subservient to our own holiness, 
and also the well-being of others. 

Christian activity is essential to Christian 
consistency. The injunctions to this are so 
numerous as to be interwoven with the whole 
texture of Scripture. This is set forth by two 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 87 

very striking metaphors, where Christ told his 
disciples they were to be "the light of the 
world," and "the salt of the earth ;" than which 
nothing can be more instructive or impressive. 
They are to illuminate the moral darkness, and 
purify the corruption by which they are sur- 
rounded. It is one end of their conversion, for 
no man is converted only for himself. Hence 
said Christ to Peter, " And when thou art con- 
verted strengthen thy brethren." Every truly 
regenerated person is, and should consider him- 
self, another chosen, appointed, and prepared in- 
strument for the world's conversion. Grod works 
by means and instruments, and these are not 
exclusively confined to the ministers of relig- 
ion. There are many ways in which every real 
Christian can, without invading the ministerial 
office, or stepping out of his place, do good to 
others. This is required by the law which 
commands us to love God ; for can we love him 
and not desire that others should do so too? 
Equally also by that other great command- 
ment which requires us to love our neighbor 
as ourselves ; for can we really love him and 
not seek to do him all the good we can ? Read 



8tt CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

the following scriptures with great care and 
attention : Matt. 5 : 42-48 ; Rom. 10 : 6-13 ; 
14 : 7, 9 ; Gal. 6 : 6-10 ; Phil. 2 : 4, 15, 16, 21 ; 
Heb. 13:16; 1 John, 4:10, 11. 

Young converts should have a clear under* 
standing, a deep conviction, and a very pow- 
erful impression of this, that they are called 
not only to holiness and happiness, hut also to 
usefulness ; and should also perceive that no 
small part of the two first depends upon carry- 
ing out the last. Yet they are not ahvays so 
disposed ; they are sometimes so much taken 
up with the enjoyment of their own personal 
religion and Christian privileges, as to sit down 
in luxurious ease, and indolently enjoy the hap- 
piness to which they are brought. But let 
them know and remember, that one of the 
strongest evidences of our own salvation, is a 
deep concern and a vigorous activity for the 
salvation of others. Every true believer should 
begin his religious course with an intelligent 
purpose to lay himself out for usefulness, ac- 
cording to his abilities, his means, his situation, 
his resources, and his opportunities. He cannot 
be a Christian who in the spirit of the first 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 89 

murderer asks, " Am I my brother's keeper?" 
Benevolence must enter very largely into the 
constitution of every real Christian ; and like 
every other part of the Christian character, it 
must be ever growing. He must be useful, 
and do good as a young man, with even limited 
means and opportunities : he must first be ac- 
tive in that way to which he is most adapted ; 
then he must look out for something else, for 
nothing is so suggestive and inventive as benev- 
olence. His sphere of activity must continu- 
ally widen as his experience becomes estab- 
lished, his knowledge increases, his observation 
extends, and his resources accumulate. Noth- 
ing progresses more rapidly in a heart set upon 
doing good, than an ability to be useful. They 
who at first are timid, shy, awkward, in such 
efforts, soon acquire courage, expertness, and 
efficiency. It is a sad sight to see the heart 
contracting, the hand growing slack, and the 
foot heavy and slow, as the means and oppor- 
tunities for doing good are multiplied. On the 
other hand, how beautiful a scene is it to wit- 
ness the professor becoming more and more 
both of the Christian and of the philanthropist 



90 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

as years roll on, till he realizes the description 
of the Psalmist where he says, the righteous 
" shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall 
be fat and flourishing." Psalm 92 : 14. 

And what is the crowning grace, the finish- 
ing stroke of beauty, and the brightest ray of 
glory in the Christian character ? Humility. 
" It is this among other things, and high among 
them too, which distinguishes Christianity from 
all the wisdom of the world both ancient and 
modern, not having been taught by the wise 
men of the Gentiles, but first put into a disci- 
pline and made part of religion by our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; and who chiefly proposes himself 
as our example by exhibiting in his own per- 
fect character the twin sisters of meekness and 
humility. Every thing — our ignorance, our 
weakness, our sins, and our follies, prescribe to 
as that our proper dwelling-place is low in the 
deep valley of humility. We have only to 
compare our present spiritual condition, I will 
not say with the holy God, the holy Jesus, or 
the holy angels, but with holy Adam before his 
fall, to see how low we have sunk, and how 
entirely by the fall we have lost all ground and 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 9] 

all excuse for pride. "We have only to look at 
human nature in general, all corrupt as it is, 
or study it in our own selves as its epitome ; we 
have only to look back at what we were before 
conversion, or to look in and see how imperfect 
even in our converted state we still are ; we 
have only to consider how strong are our reso- 
lutions, and how feeble and broken have been 
their performance — how many the temptations 
by which we have been assailed, and with 
what success against ourselves, to see most 
abundant cause for humility. You may read 
for injunctions to this virtue, Prov. 15 : 33 ; 
18 : 12 ; 22 : 4 ; Mic. 6:8; Luke 14 : 11 ; Col. 
3 : 12 ; 1 Peter, 5 : 5. But all these injunctions 
and all possible motives to this grace are bound 
up in the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Remember that the blessed Saviour hath done 
more to prescribe and transmit and secure 
this grace, than any other ; his whole life being 
a great, continued descent from the glorious 
bosom of his Father to the womb of a poor 
maiden, to the form of a servant, to the like- 
ness and miseries of sinful flesh, to a life of 
labor, to a state of poverty, to a death of mal- 



92 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

efactors, to the grave of death, and to the in- 
tolerable calamities which we deserved ; and 
it were a good design, and yet but reasonable, 
that we should be as humble in the midst of 
our greatest imperfections and basest sins, as 
Christ was in the midst of his fulness of the 
Spirit, great wisdom, perfect life, and most ad- 
mirable virtues."* 

The same author has given us the following 
signs of humility. " If you would try how 
your soul grows, you shall know that humil- 
ity, like the root of a goodly tree, is thrust very 
far into the ground, by these goodly fruits 
which appear above ground. 1. The humble 
man trusts not to his own discretion, but in 
matters of concernment relies rather upon the 
judgment of his friends, counsellors, or spiritual 
guides. 2. He does not pertinaciously pursue 
the choice of his own will, but in all things lets 
Grod choose for him, and his superiors in those 
things w T hich concern them. 3. He does not 
murmur against commands. 4. He is not in- 
quisitive into the reasonableness of indifferent 
and innocent commands, but believes their 

* Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 93 

command to be reason enough in such cases to 
exact his obedience. 5. He lives according to 
a rule, and with compliance to public customs, 
without any affectation or singularity 6. He 
is meek and indifferent in all accidents and 
chances. 7. He patiently bears injuries. 8. 
He is always unsatisfied in his own conduct, 
resolutions, and counsels. 9. He is a great 
lover of good men, and a praiser of wise men, 
and a censurer of no man. 10. He is modest 
in his speech, and reserved in his laughter. 
11. He fears, when he hears himself commend- 
ed, lest Grod make another judgment concern- 
ing his actions, than men do. 12. He gives 
no pert or saucy answers when he is reproved, 
whether justly or unjustly. 13. He loves to 
sit down in private, and, if he may, he refuses 
the temptation of offices and new honors. 14. 
He is ingenuous, free, and open in his actions 
and discourses. 15. He mends his fault, and 
gives thanks, when he is admonished. 16. He 
is ready to do good offices to the murderers of 
his fame, to his slanderers, backbiters, and de- 
tractors, as Christ washed the feet of Judas. 
17. And is contented to be suspected of indis- 



94 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

cretion, so before God he may be really inno- 
cent, and not offensive to his neighbor, nor 
wanting to his just and prudent interest. 5 ' 

Such is the grace, and such its signs, in which 
it is the duty of every Christian to be continu- 
ally progressing. It is not unfrequently th-3 
case that young converts in the ardor of theii 
first love are self-confident, and sometimes a 
little high-minded. They are unduly exalted 
in their own estimation by the strength of theii 
feelings and the liveliness of their frames, and 
are almost ready to wonder at, and to censure, 
the lowly confessions of others far older in the 
divine life than themselves. They seem al- 
ready to realize, in their own estimation, the 
beautiful language of the prophet, and mount 
up with wings as eagles ; they run and are not 
weary, and walk and are not faint. Thus spir- 
itual pride, like the fly or the worm striking the 
young germination, eats into the heart of tho 
young believer, and where it does not destroy 
the principle of life, sadly impairs its growth. 

Let, therefore, the early professor be duly 
aware of this tendency and watch against it- 
Let him recollect that as humility may be com- 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 95 

pared to the roots of the tree, while other gra- 
ces are its fruits, the latter must be expected 
in abundance only as the former strike down- 
wards deeper and deeper into the earth. Surelv 
it might be supposed there is no one grace in 
which the soul would be more disposed or find 
it easier to grow than this, since every day as 
it passes gives us greater and greater know- 
ledge of ourselves and shows us how little cause 
there is for pride. "If we need any new in- 
centives to the practice of this grace, I can say 
no more, but that humility is truth, and pride 
is a lie — that the one glorifies God, the other 
dishonors him : humility makes men like angels, 
pride makes angels to become devils ; that pride 
is folly, humility is the temper of a holy spirit 
and excellent wisdom ; that humility is the 
way to glory, pride to ruin and confusion : hu- 
mility makes saints on earth, pride undoes 
them ; humility beautifies the saints in heaven, 
and j the elders throw their crowns at the foot 
of the throne;' pride disgraces a man among 
all the societies of the earth : G-od loves one, 
and Satan solicits the cause of the other, and 
promotes his own interest in it most of all. 



96 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

And there is not one grace in which Christ pro 
pounded himself imitable so signally as in this 
of meekness and humility, for the enforcing of 
which he undertook the condition of a servant, 
and a life of poverty, and a death of disgrace ; 
and washed the feet of his disciples, and even 
of Judas himself, that his action might be turn- 
ed into a sermon to preach this duty, and to 
make it as eternal as his own story." And can 
we present for ourselves a more appropriate 
and beautiful prayer than that with which 
Bishop Taylor closes his " Considerations upon 
Christ's Humility :" 

" holy and eternal Jesus, who wert pleased 
to lay aside the glories and incomprehensible 
majesty which clothed thy infinity from before 
the beginning of creatures, and didst put on a 
cloud upon thy brightness, and wert invested 
with the impure and imperfect broken robe of 
human nature, and didst abate those splendors 
which broke through the veil, commanding 
devils not to publish thee, and men not to pro- 
claim thy excellences, and the apostles not to 
reveal those glories of thine, which they dis- 
covered encircling thee, upon mount Tabor, in 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 07 

tliy transfiguration, and didst, by perpetual 
homilies and symbolical mysterious actions, 
as with deep characters engrave humility into 
the spirits of thy disciples and the discipline 
of Christianity, teach us to approach near to 
these thy glories, which thou hast so covered 
with a cloud that we might without amaze- 
ment behold thy excellences ; make us to 
imitate thy gracious condescensions ; take from 
us all vanity and fantastic complacencies in 
our own persons or actions ; and when there 
arises a reputation consequent to the perform- 
ance of any part of our duty, make us to re- 
flect the glory upon thee, suffering nothing to 
adhere to our own spirits but shame at our 
own imperfection and thankfulness to thee for 
all thy assistances ; let us never seek the praise 
of men from unhandsome actions, from flatter- 
ies and unworthy discourses, nor entertain the 
praise with delight though it proceed from 
better principles ; but fear and tremble, lest 
we deserve punishment, or lose a reward 
which thou hast deposited for all them that 
seek thy glory and despise their own, that 
they may imitate the example of their Lord. 



98 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

Thou, Lord, didst triumph over sin and 
death ; subdue also my proud understanding, 
and my prouder affections, and bring me under 
thy yoke, that I may do thy work, and obey 
my superiors, and be a servant of all my 
brethren in their necessities, and esteem myself 
inferior to all men by a deep sense of my own 
unworthiness, and in all things may obey thy 
laws, and conform to thy precedents, and enter 
into thine inheritance, holy and eternal 
Jesus. Amen." 

And now we may ask, Are there not certain 
points of resemblance between natural growth 
and progressive holiness which deserve notice ? 
"We apprehend there are, and principally the 
following : 

1. It is the order of the natural world for 
all life, whether in vegetables, brutes, or human 
beings, to grow. Growth, as we have said, is 
the law of healthful life. 

2. Growth is dependent upon means used 
to promote it. The child grows in strength 
and stature by his mother's milk ; animals in 
much the same way ; and trees and vegetables 
by all the processes and supplies of agriculture 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. [)<j 

and the influences of the heavens and the soil. 
So is it with religion in the soul : there cannot 
be advance without the appropriate means, 
both in kind and measure. These will be the 
subject of the next chapter. 

3. Growth in other things is proportionate 
in all the parts which belong to them. If of 
a tree, the roots, stem, and branches all grow 
together, if the tree be in a sound state. If it 
be a child, all the limbs grow proportionately, 
and the body, and also mind, keep pace with 
each other. Disproportion produces monstrosi- 
ties. If, for instance, the head be larger than 
the body, or the limbs smaller; or if the mind 
is childish while the body is advancing to the 
period of youth or manhood, in either of these 
cases there is deformity. So it is in religion. 
The Christian grows in knowledge, faith, and 
holiness together. There is, or should be, no 
spiritual deformity or monstrosity. 

4. Growth is very gradual in all life, not 
excepting the Christian. No plant becomes a 
tree, no child a man, all at once : so is it with 
the Christian. 

5 Growth is perceptible, not indeed in its 



100 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

principles, but in its effects. In the case of a 
tree or shrub, he who sees it when first planted, 
md looks at it some years afterwards, will 
perceive progress. So of a new-born babe, 
growing into a child of two years old. So of 
a young convert : he who converses with him 
at his first awaking, and a year or two after 
his conversion, will perceive an increase of 
knowledge and decision and comfort and 
holiness. This, however, will sometimes be 
more clearly perceived by those who stand by, 
than by the Christian himself. The child is 
not at the time sensible of his own growth ; 
and it often, yea, generally, requires to look 
back and compare what he is now with what 
he recollects himself to have been, to convince 
him of his growth. And so it is with the 
spiritual babe. 

" A healthy child," says Dr. John Brown 
in his admirable exposition of the epistle of 
Peter, to which I am indebted for several of 
the preceding remarks, " grows without think- 
ing much about its growth. It takes its food 
and exercise, and finds that it is growing in 
the increase of its strength and its capacity 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 101 

for exertion. And an analogous state is, I 
feelieve, the healthiest state of the spiritual 
new-born babe. While self-examination, right- 
ly managed, is very useful, a morbid desire of 
the satisfaction of knowing that we are im- 
proving, is in danger of drawing the mind away 
from the constant employment of the means of 
spiritual nourishment and health. The best 
state of things is where, in the healthy vigor- 
ous state of the spiritual constitution, ready 
for every good work, we have the evidence in 
ourselves that we are growing ; and when that 
is wanting, application to the sincere milk of 
the word will do a great deal more than poring 
into ourselves to find either proof that we are 
growing or not growing." 

This is very true, very judicious, and very 
important ; but then it must not be abused 
and allowed to degenerate into an utter care- 
lessness about our spiritual state, nor abate 
that holy jealousy over ourselves, and that 
just anxiety to grow in grace, without which 
declension and not progress will be our con- 
dition. It is quite true that our chief solici- 
tude should be not to neglect, but diligently to 



102 ■ CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

use, all the means of progress, rather than an 
attempt, as by a spiritual pedometer, to be 
perpetually measuring the ground over which 
we have passed. A child who does not grow, 
who finds his years rolling on and adding 
nothing to his stature, soon becomes anxious 
about it, and inquires into the cause of his re- 
maining in his dwarfish littleness. And when, 
therefore, the child of God, or one that pro- 
fesses to be such, makes no advance percepti- 
ble either to himself or others, it is quite time 
for him to begin to be anxious, to inquire what 
has stopped his progress, and to apply afresh 
to all the appointed means for his spiritual 
advancement. 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

You now see what is meant by progressive 
religion. You cannot be ignorant of this im- 
portant subject, nor plead ignorance for the 
neglect of it. You see clearly it is not merely 
an uninterrupted round of ceremonial observ- 
ances, nor merely an acquisition of knowledge, 
though these things may comport with it, but 
that it is an advance in faith and holiness. Do 



NATURE OF PROGRESS. 103 

you understand this matter, and apprehend 
clearly its nature as well as its necessity? 
Does that one impressive word growth, growth, 
stand out clearly defined, luminously seen, im- 
pressively felt, before you ? If so, immediately 
enter upon a course of self-scrutiny — diligent, 
impartial, close examination, to ascertain if 
there be this progress in you. Again enter into 
your closet, shut the door, and commune both 
with your own heart and with Grod, and say, 
as in his sight, 

Am I as really in earnest as I once was ? 

I have changed my situation, do I retain my 
religion, and have I carried into new circum- 
stances and relations my former earnestness ? 

Am I advancing in my knowledge of the 
Scriptures and the great truths of religion, 
gaining clearer and more distinct apprehensions 
of spiritual things ? 

Am I more decided and resolute and set- 
tled in all my religious convictions and pious 
habits, than I was at first ? 

Is my faith stronger and more influential, 
and am I less troubled with doubts and fears, 
than I was ? 



104 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

Am I really holier than I was? Have I 
gained greater power over my corruptions ? 

Am I more spiritual and heavenly, more full 
of devout thoughts and affections ? 

Do I improve in my temper by becoming 
more meek, gentle, forgiving, and kind ? 

Have I learned to combine more of the gen- 
erous and free spirit of Christian liberty with 
an equal advance in holiness ? 

Am I more anxious about universal and un 
varying consistency of conduct ? 

Is it more and more my concern to be active 
and useful ? 

"Withal, do I increase in humility ? Have I 
a deeper and deeper sense of my own short- 
comings, and a growing disposition to think 
better of others and lowlier of myself? 

Test yourself, very searching *;> by s»flh 
questions as these, 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 105 

CHAPTER III. 

THE MEANS OF PROGRESS. 

This is of unspeakable importance. I will 
suppose that some by the reading of the fore- 
going pages begin to see this subject in a light 
in which they never saw it before. I will sup- 
pose that a new anxiety has come up in the 
mind now the old one is allayed, and that the 
great question at present is not, " What shall I 
do to be saved?" but, " "What shall I do to be 
sanctified ?" "We have already said that means 
must be used. But what means ? 

1. There must be a deep conviction of the 
necessity and importance of progress, and an 
intense desire to attain it. 

The subject must lay hold of the mind and 
possess the heart. Will a man increase in 
knowledge, in wealth, in influence, who has no 
desire after it ? What object ever was or can 
be obtained without a conviction of its value or 
a wish to secure it ? Is it not the desire that 
originates the effort, and will not exertion ever 
be in proportion to the intensity of desire ? 



106 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

"What prodigious and wonderful efforts have 
men put forth after an object upon which their 
hearts were set. Look at the tradesman : how 
will he toil, rising up early and sitting up late, 
and eating the bread of carefulness, to increase 
his trade. Look at the student panting a 
knowledge : how will he consume his days and 
trim his midnight lamp to increase his scientific 
stores. Look at the hero : braving all the 
dangers of the field, and the hardships of the 
campaign, to increase his fame and to acquire 
glory — which is but the name vanity turned 
into an idol. Why, why all this intense ener- 
gy ? Because they have a deep, but mistaken 
sense of the importance of the object of pursuit, 
and an absorbing and overheated desire to pos- 
sess it. And on the contrary, why is it that so 
many professing Christians do not make progress, 
and indeed make no efforts to obtain it? "Why, 
because they care nothing about it. To take 
up a profession is all they desire ; but to pro- 
ceed from one degree of piety to another, to 
grow in grace, to go on unto perfection, is no 
part of their ambition. How many are there 
to whom if we were to say, " Well, now you 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 107 

call yourself a Christian, and wish others to 
consider you as such, and you are of course 
eagerly desirous of making continual advances 
in knowledge, faith, and holiness ; and we shall 
see you evidently becoming more and more like 
Christ" — who, I say, if we should thus address 
them, would look wonderingly in our face, as if 
they did not comprehend our meaning ; or re- 
proachfully, as if we questioned their sincerity ; 
or contemptuously, as if we were indulging in 
enthusiasm or mysticism, and wished them to 
be as visionary as ourselves. Of course such a 
frame of mind, and such views as these, are 
adverse to all progress. There must then be 
concern about the matter. And shall there be 
none? What, no solicitude to have more 01 
the knowledge of truth, of faith in Christ, of 
likeness to Grod, of meetness for heaven ? No 
desire to advance in such things ? Is it possible 
to be a Christian, and yet destitute of this ? 
No, it is not. I tell you, it is not. If you 
have no concern to grow, there is no life in 
you. You are a piece of dead wood, and not 
a living branch — a spiritual corpse, and not a 
living man. In this state there can be no 



108 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

growth, for dead things never grow; while 
on the other hand, the very desire will insure 
the possession of its object. 

2. You must enter deeply into that beati 
tude of our Lord, which says, " Blessed are 
they which do hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness ; for they shall be filled." Matt. 5 : 6. 
This is a passage too much overlooked and 
forgotten by most professing Christians. Its 
terms are exceedingly strong, its sentiment 
amazingly important. Among all the appetites 
of our animal nature none is so strong, none 
so imperiously demands supply, none so con- 
stantly returns, none inflicts such suffering 
when not supplied, as this of hunger and thirst. 
And this is the appetite which, in the figura- 
tive language of Scripture, is selected to ex- 
press the vehement desire we should feel after 
righteousness or holiness ; and it is not only one 
of our natural instincts of this kind, but both 
hunger and thirst, that are spoken of. It is 
not the faint and feeble desire which by one 
filled almost to repletion is felt after some 
luxury, which, if it be not obtained, the person 
can do very well without. Oh, no; but the 



OF PROGR^ 109 

insatiable, unappeasable desire of the empty, 
hun_ nach, alter necessary food, that is 

employed. Such should be the longing of 
every renewed soul after holiness. Righteous- 
ness should be to it that which bread is to the 
body, and in reference to which we should - 
'•Evermore give us this bread. *' Instead of 
those longings after earthly blessings which 
characterize the worldly mind — those pantings 
after wealth, honor, and pleasure, which excite 
such energies and call forth such activities, the 
mind of the believer should be intent on spirit- 
ual blessings. Xo measure of holiness to which 
he has already attained should satisfy him. 
There are sins yet to be mortified, and he must 
not be content till they are dead. There are 
heights of moral excellence above him which 
he has not reached, and he should long to 
climb up to them. "What he has yet attained 
to, are but as crumbs to a hungry man who 
longs for the full meal, or drops of water to a 
thirst}* one who pants for the copious draught. 
It is astonishing and affecting to see with what 
low degress of righteousness some professors 
are satisfied. How little they seem to have of 



110 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

the spirit of holiness. How very little is there 
of forgetting the things that are behind, and 
pressing forward to greater things yet. How 
many are there who are contented with the 
average piety of the church and the age, and 
seem only anxious to stand well in the estima- 
tion of their fellow- Christians who are no better 
than themselves. How few are there whom 
nothing can satisfy but an ever-growing con- 
formity to the divine image. 

Perhaps there is in some persons a sad dis- 
position to pervert and abuse a passage of most 
instructive and encouraging and cautionary 
import : I mean the question which was asked 
concerning the small beginnings in the erection 
of the second temple at Jerusalem, " Who hath 
despised the day of small things ?" Zech. 4:10. 
This has been applied also in a spiritual way to 
the commencement of religion in the soul ; and 
we are told that little grace is better than 
none at all — that faith is still faith though it 
be weak, just as diamonds are diamonds and 
gold is gold, though it be in small pieces. Or, 
to return to the idea already dwelt upon, life 
is life though it be but that of a babe, and 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. Ill 

therefore is not to be despised. We know it 
and admit it. But then if little things are not 
to he despised, ought great ones to he so 
treated ? And is not satisfaction with littlo 
things, when great ones may he obtained, to 
despise the latter ? Be it so, that fragments 
of gold and diamonds are not to be rejected ; 
yet who are contented with the dust of either 
when they might have ingots of the one, or 
large and costly jewels of the other ? No ; the 
least measure of holiness is not to be despised. 
It contains a powerful principle of expansion 
and enlargement. Does the gardener despise 
the germ of the flower, or the seed of a plant, 
or the acorn of the oak ? Or does the parent 
despise the day of small things in the life of 
his babe ? No ; but then neither the gardener 
nor the parent is satisfied with the day of 
small things. So neither should the Christian. 
It is well therefore to consider, as Barnes the 
commentator remarks, that there is no piety 
in the world which is not the result of cultiva- 
tion, and which cannot be increased by the 
degree of care and attention bestowed upon it. 
/ No one becomes eminently pious, any more 



112 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

than any one "becomes eminently rich or learn- 
ed, who does not intend it; and ordinarily 
men are, in religion, ivhat they intend to be. 
They have about as much religion as they 
wish, and possess about the characters which 
they design to possess. "When men reach ex- 
traordinary elevations in religion, like Baxter, 
Payson, and Edwards, they have gained only 
what they meant to gain; and the gay and 
worldly professors of religion, who have little 
comfort and peace, have in fact the characters 
which they designed to have. 

3. Great attention to self -cultivation, spir- 
itually considered, is a means of growth. By 
this I mean what is expressed in one or two 
passages of Scripture ; such, for instance, as 
the exhortation, "Keep thy heart with all 
diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." 
Prov. 4 : 23. It is the heart, the great vital 
spring of the soul, the fountain of actions, 
the centre of principle, the seat of motives — 
the heart, where are the thoughts and feelings 
out of which conduct comes. It is this that 
must be the first, chief, constant object of 
solicitude to the Christian. It is this which 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 1 J 3 

God sees, and as God sees it, and because God 
principally looks at it, that must be ever upper- 
most in our concern. To keep the heart must- 
mean exerting ourselves with great earnest- 
ness, in dependence upon divine grace, to pre- 
serve it in a good state ; laboring to preserve 
its vitality, vigor, and purity. "We must often 
ask the question, "In ivhat state is my heart ? 
Are my thoughts and affections in a good spir- 
itual condition ?" It is, in another view of it, 
the citadel of the soul : if this be neglected, 
the enemy at the gates will soon be in and 
take possession. Set a watch, therefore, upon 
the heart. Let the sentinel be never off duty, 
nor sleeping at his post. Keep out evil thoughts, 
and unholy affections, and vile imaginations. 
Without great vigilance they will elude obser- 
vation. As soon as an enemy of this kind is 
detected, he must be seized and made captive, 
till every thought is brought into subjection to 
Christ. As the state of the heart is, so is the 
man in reality, and before God. Discipline 
the heart then * 

* See an admirable volume lately published, entitled " Heart 
Discipline," by my friend trie Rev. James Cooper. 

Chr. Fro K . 8 



114 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

But there is a second passage well worth 
the attention of all young converts ; I mea>. 
where Paul exhorts Timothy thus: "Exercise 
thyself unto godliness." 1 Tim. 4 : 7. The 
word in the original is very strong, and might 
he rendered by a free translation, " practise 
gymnastic exercises in religion," like the an- 
cient competitors in the Olympic games. We 
say also of soldiers in the early stage of their 
training, " They are practising their exercise" 
They are being trained in what they do not 
previously know, and cannot perform without 
being taught ; and to learn which, and do it 
well, requires a great deal of labor. So it is 
with the Christian ; he must in all that concerns 
true godliness, learn his exercise, and be often 
thus engaged. Religion and religious progress 
cannot be acquired without great pains. As a 
man cannot be at once a good soldier, while he 
is a young recruit and before he has been 
drilled upon the parade-ground, so no one can 
be an eminent Christian as soon as he is con- 
verted, and before he has been at his drilling. 
Self- improvement in knowledge by the student, 
and in business by the tradesman, are the re- 



MEANS OF PROailESS. 115 

suit of great painstaking. No one can expect 
advancement without labor. It is astonishing 
and affecting to see how little anxiety there is 
among many to improve themselves in religion 

4. One great means of progress is a constant., 
earnest, and spiritual attendance upon all the 
appointed means of growth. 

Private prayer is essentially necessary. 
" And thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy 
closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray 
to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." 
Matt. 6:6. A spirit of prayer is so essential 
to personal religion, that it may as certainly be 
said that it is a dead soul in which there is not 
this spirit, as it may of the body that it is a 
corpse in which there is no breath. Prayer is 
the most secret intercourse of the soul with 
G-od — the converse of one heart with another. 
Prayer requires retirement : a real Christian 
must be often alone with God. No one can 
make progress without much prayer. Religion | 
is a plant that for growth must be often remov-, 
ed into the shade. It will be scorched and 
wither if it be always kept in the broad sun- 



116 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

shine of publicity. It is the private intercourse 
of friends that increases their friendship. None 
can progress in love to God without this pri- 
vate communion. There must be time found 
and fixed for prayer, and the time fixed must 
be kept. That which is left to be done at any 
time, is likely to be done at no time. There is 
nothing about which a young Christian should 
be more anxious than maintaining the spirit, the 
love, the practice of private prayer ; and nothing 
which should more seriously alarm him, than 
any disposition to neglect this. He who makes 
any excuse for omitting the appointed hour of 
visiting a friend, must be in a fair way to lose 
all regard for him. 

But there are also public as well as private 
means to be observed. You must " Remember 
the Sabbath-day to keep it holy." How neces- 
sary a right, though not a gloomy or supersti- 
tious observance of this day is to the preserva- 
tion and strengthening of our piety, is attested 
by the experience of others, and not less so by 
our own. It is true it is a feast, and not a fast 
day, and should be kept in the spirit of the 
new and not of the old covenant; that is, 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 117 

with joy and freedom, and not with gloom and 
bondage. Still it must be serious joy. He 
who passes his Sabbaths in frivolous conversa- 
tion and levity of spirit ; who is not devout in 
his attendance upon the means of grace ; who 
does not make the best of the precious opportu- 
nity to improve his religious condition; whc 
conducts himself much as on other days, ex- 
cept that he does not buy and sell, and goes 
once or twice to the house of God, cannot expect 
to get on in religion. Tell me how a professor 
spends his Sabbaths, and I will tell you in 
what state his soul is, spiritually considered. 

A Christian ought to be, and I am supposing 
he is, a communicant at the table of the Lord, 
If he is not, he ought to be. It is by way of 
eminence the ordinance. Apart from any su- 
perstitious notion of it, it is a solemn and im- 
pressive solemnity. As creatures formed to be 
moved, as well as instructed, through the me- 
dium of the senses, we are likely to be affected 
by those symbols of the body and blood of 
Christ which, with such awful, though silent 
eloquence, speak to the ear of faith of Him who 
is thus set forth crucified before us. Perhaps 



118 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

there is no ordinance of Grod which, when ob- 
served in a proper frame of mind, speaks so 
forcibly to our hearts and operates so power- 
fully upon our whole souls as this. There, 
believer, there renew your faith in the crucified 
Saviour ; there increase your love, as you see 
his love so strikingly exhibited ; and there, by 
the mercies of God, present your bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable, and well-pleasing 
to G-od. There consecrate yourself afresh each 
time to his service, as his faithful devoted ser- 
vant. What progress can you expect to make 
if you neglect this institute so expressly set up, 
that through feeding by faith on the great sac- 
rifice offered for you upon the cross, you might 
be " strengthened with all might by the Spirit 
in the inner man." 

Connected with this, is an attendance upon 
the solemnities of public worship. None who 
make any pretensions to religion can altogether 
neglect these. All such persons are there some 
part of the Sabbath. But is it not too obvious 
to be denied, that modern habits of suburban 
residence in large towns are introducing a most 
injurious partial neglect of public worship. 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 119 

Once on the Sabbath-day, and never in the 
week, is all the attendance some give at the 
house of God. Can there be progress where 
this is the case ? Can the soul be strong and 
healthy upon such scanty fare as one meal a 
week ? They who would grow in grace, must 
love the habitation of God's house ; must have 
the one desire of David to see God's power and 
glory in the sanctuary ; must know something 
at least of what he felt when he said, " As the 
heart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth 
my soul after thee, God. My soul thirsteth 
for God, for the living God ; when shall I come 
and appear before God ?" Psa. 42 : 1, 2. It 
is the man who loves the house of God, who 
will put himself to some little inconvenience, 
and will make some sacrifices of ease to be 
there, who is likely to profit by the appointed 
means. It is those that are planted in the 
courts of the Lord who shall flourish, and not 
those who are only occasionally there. 

And then how much depends upon the frame 
of mind in which, and the purpose for which, 
this attendance is carried on. There is a man- 
ner of attending upon the means of grace, which 



120 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

instead of benefiting the soul does it great 
harm. Gospel sermons and the richest devo- 
tional services may harden the heart instead of 
sanctifying it, and be a savor of death unto 
death instead of life unto life. Let us never 
forget, that to be profiled, that is, to be spirit- 
ually improved in knowledge, faith, holiness, 
joy, and love, is the end of hearing sermons, 
and not merely to have our taste gratified by 
genius, eloquence, and oratory. I know scarce- 
ly any thing of more importance to put before 
a young Christian, than the necessity, in order 
to a healthful state of religion, of a right end 
and object in hearing the word of God. "We 
live in an age when talent is idolized, and 
genius adored. This is " the image of jealousy 
which maketh jealous" in the temple of the 
Lord. AVith too many it is not the truth of 
God that is thought of, valued, and delighted 
in, but the talent of man with which it is set 
forth. Now we admit that it is almost impos- 
sible not to admire and be affected by genius. 
Mind must admire the nobler exhibitions of 
mind ; and cultivated intellects cannot put up 
with the crude effusions of ignorance «r dul- 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 121 

ness. To such persons, it is not only offensive 
to taste, but to piety, to hear such sublime and 
glorious themes as the gospel contains set forth 
in the mean and tattered habiliments of vulgai 
language and mean thought. Who would like 
to have the richest delicacies served up on the 
meanest or broken earthenware ? Even in 
regard to books, elegant typography and good 
paper add to the pleasure of reading, even 
where the matter is instructive and the sub- 
ject of perusal is interesting. But it would 
argue an ill-regulated mind, in the one case to 
be fonder of the elegance of the dish than of 
the good food which it contains ; and in the 
other, of the type, paper, and binding of the 
book, than of the momentous subject on which 
it treats. It is scarcely possible to give a more 
important piece of advice to one setting out on 
the ways of God, than our Lord's words, " Take^" 
heed how you hear." "We should hear sermons 
with something of the same state of mind, and for 
the same purpose, as we should directions from a 
physician concerning our health, or from a law- 
yer how to avert an impending sentence of death. 
Intimate converse with the ivord of God is 



122 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

essential to progress. We must neither neglect 
nor idolize the preacher. The sermon in the 
house of God must not displace the Bible from 
our hand. To be contented with the public 
ministry without the private searching of the 
Bible, is virtually so far to turn Papists, or at 
any rate to act like them. It is painful to 
think how little use multitudes make of their 
Bibles. It is a question which might bring a 
blush, or ought to do so, upon many a professor's 
cheek, " How many chapters of God's holy 
word have you read the last week or month ?•' 
Not that the Scriptures should be merely read 
for the sake of being read. Some no doubt 
prescribe to themselves the task of reading so 
many chapters every day; and perhaps with 
much the same motive as the Papist repeats 
his Ave Marias, or his Paternosters : as a kind 
of penance. This is not what we mean : and 
we would at once suggest, that as in eating it 
is not the quantity of food taken into the 
stomach, but the quantity that can be diges 
which keeps up our strength and promotes our 
health ; so it is not the quantity of Scripture 
read, but the quantity studied, understood, and 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 123 

applied, that does us good. One verse pon- 
dered upon, felt, applied, is better than a whole 
chapter or hook read negligently, thoughtless- 
ly, and without self-application. Not that a 
verse a day is enough spiritual food for any 
one. It may be feared that not a few have 
abused those little manuals of piety got up for 
the edification of persons who really cannot 
command time for much reading ; I mean the 
" text-a-day " books, which are now so com- 
mon. Surely they who can command time, 
should hardly be satisfied with such a crumb 
of the bread of life as this. A real, devout, 
and intelligent study of the Scriptures, then, is 
essential to great progress in the life of God. 
" Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Grod." 
To every young convert, therefore, we say, 
Search the Scriptures daily. Meditate on the 
law of Grod day and night. Try how much 
of the word of God you can understand, and 
what is more, try how much you can practise. 
JStudy the word of Grod with prayer for divine 
teaching. Take up David's petition, " Open 
thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous 



124 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

things out of thy law." Remember this also, 
there is much corruption in your heart gen- 
erating a false bias, and beclouding your judg- 
ment, and likely therefore to lead you to mis- 
conception and error. Beseech of God to send 
forth his Spirit into your heart to purify it from 
depravity, that your understanding may be 
better preserved from error. Enter deeply into 
the meaning and spirit of that remarkable 
saying of our Lord, " If any man will do his," 
(rod's, " will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
whether it be of G-od, or whether I speak 
of myself. " John 7 : 17. In this important 
passage we are taught that the disposition of 
the heart has much to do with the views and 
opinions of the intellect. In all moral questions 
it must be so. A sincere wish and purpose to 
do the will of God, will be our best way to 
know the mind of God. An honest heart is 
the most likely means to gain a correct judg- 
ment. True it is, that we must in some degree 
know the mind of God in order to do his will ; 
but a desire to do his will is also the way to 
know it more perfectly. We must have know- 
ledge to produce holiness, but holiness will 



MEANS OF PROGRESS 125 

prepare us for more knowledge. And the 
knowledge we acquire in this way will be of a 
spiritual and experimental kind. We must 
give up all preconceived ideas, all prejudices, 
all pride of intellect, and go in humility to the 
Scriptures as learners. 

5. A deep conviction and ever-present sense 
of the need of the Holy Spirit , accompanied 
by a constant dependence upon him, is indis- 
pensable to progress in the divine life. With- 
out this the soul can no more grow in grace, 
than the produce of the earth can be brought 
forth without the genial influences of the 
heavens. Whatever means are used, and all 
covenanted and appropriate ones must be used, 
still our dependence for their efficiency must 
be upon G-od's blessing. Hence says the apos- 
tle, " If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk 
in the Spirit." Gal. 5 : 25. First, as in the 
body, there must be the principle of life, then 
the activities of that principle. And in both 
natural and spiritual existence, it may be said, 
in God we live and move and have our being. 
Agreeably also to this, is the other exhortation 
of the same apostle, " Work out your salvation/ 



126 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

with, fear and trembling, for it is God which 
worketh in you both to will and to do of his 
good pleasure." Phil. 2 : 13. This is one of 
/ the most instructive and important passages oi 
the New Testament. Now, it must he observed 
that this was addressed to those who were sup- 
posed to be Christians, who were already saved, 
though not formally and finally possessed of 
salvation ; and yet they are- commanded to 
work out their salvation. Of course, therefore, 
it did not mean works for justification, for this 
was already completed. It means, " Go on 
working in your sanctification, with a view to 
the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 
Go on earnestly in the way of holy walking, 
even to the close of life, for though you cannot 
be saved by and for your works, you cannot be 
saved without them ; nor can you be saved 
unless you continue in them to the end." This 
is also to be done " with fear and trembling," 
that is, with all that deep solicitude which lie 
might be supposed to feel, who knows he has 
so important an interest at stake as an immor- 
tal soul. The most confident hope that we are 
in a state of salvation should not, in the smallest 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 127 

degree, abate our solicitude about our salvation 
But now observe the motive : "For it is Goa 
that loorketh in you both to will and to doP 
Grod's working is not mentioned as a reason 
why we should not work ourselves, but as an 
inducement to eng^a^e us in an earnest and 
diligent cooperation with him. The meaning 
is, God exerts a certain influence upon our 
minds to produce a certain effect on us ; that 
effect is "to will," that is, to " choose" to be 
holy ; " to do," that is, to perform holy actions. 
This effect in us is the end and purpose of his 
influence upon us. It is not G-od who wills 
and acts for us, but we who will and act our- 
selves under his influence. The mode of this 
divine influence we cannot explain. It is not 
a physical force, such as is exerted on passive 
unintelligent matter ; nor is it the mere moral 
force of persuasion, such as one man exerts 
upon another by mere argument and entreaty ; 
but it is an influence of a peculiar kind, and 
peculiar to this subject, the operation of the 
divine Spirit upon the human mind, causing 
it to understand and yield to the power of 
truth as set forth in the gospel, and addressed 



128 CHRISTIAN PROG-ILESS. 

to man's intellect. "We see in this passage, 
then, what every young convert should very 
distinctly notice and constantly remember, the 
union of human activity and divine agency. 
We can dp nothing good for ourselves without 
God's grace working in us, and God's grace 
never works in us hut to lead us to do that 
which is good ourselves. We are not to sit 
down in indolent inactivity waiting for God's 
grace to set us upon working ; but are without 
delay to begin working in a spirit of dependence 
upon God's grace. The husbandman sows his 
seed in expectation of the cooperation of the 
influences of the heavens ; and so must the 
Christian go to his work. God's grace comes 
not upon the idle, but upon the diligent. 

Christians in the early stage of then religious 
experience are but too apt to fall into one or 
other of the extremes of leaving God to do all, 
or attempting to do all themselves. The most 
common error is the latter. Full of the ardor 
of first love, they make resolutions, lay down 
plans, enter upon a course of action, too often 
in their own strength. They soon meet with 
checks and defeats. Their resolutions are 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 129 

broken, their plans frustrated, and their course 
impeded by unsuspected difficulties or success- 
ful temptations. Disheartened and discourag- 
ed, they are ready to give all up, and walk the 
ways of Grod no more. Let them rather learn 
the lesson of the great apostle who said, " When 
I am weak, then am I strong ;" or that other 
lesson, "Yet not I, but the grace of Grod in 
me." " Be strong in the Lord and in the 
power of his mighty You cannot be too active 
as regards your own efforts ; you cannot be too 
dependent as regards divine grace. Do every 
thing as if Grod did nothing: depend upon 
Grod as if he did every thing. Hence, do all in 
a spirit of prayer. Gro to every sermon, every 
book, especially the Bible, every effort in a spirit 
of prayer. This is to pervade every thing. 
Prayer is the golden thread that is to run through 
all our actions, stringing them all together, and 
suspending them all upon the hand of God. ** 

6. The company, conversation, and fellow- 
ship of established and earnest Christians r 
will be of great service to the young disciple. 
" As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth 
the countenance of his friend." Prov. 27 : 17 

Chr Pro K 9 



130 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

The allusion is familiar, but it is very illustra- 
tive. The knife whetted upon the steel acquires 
a sharper edge. By the intercourse of friends 
of congenial minds, knowledge is communicat- 
ed from the more to the less intelligent ; ani- 
mation, encouragement, and courage from the 
lively and the sanguine to the dull, the timid, 
and the gloomy ; caution, wisdom, and modes- 
ty from the more to the less prudent and dis- 
creet ; and exhilaration from the joyful to the 
sad. Thus the sympathies of friendship are 
made conducive to the advantage of those who 
enjoy them. Sharpening indeed must have 
been the intercourse with Christ on the way to 
Emmaus, when the hearts of the disciples 
burned within them as he opened their under- 
standings to know the Scriptures. Even the 
apostle Paul himself, great and illustrious as 
he was, did not feel himself lifted above these 
sympathies of Christian friendship ; even he 
was so cheered by the conference and coun- 
tenance of friends, that he longed to be "some~ 
what filled with their company ;" and when, 
in a moment of dejection, on his way to Rome, 
he saw the three brethren who had " come to 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 131 

meet him as far as Appii Forum and the Three 
Taverns," he recovered from his depression, 
% ' thanked Grod, and took courage." Hence, 
then, the necessity and advantage of Christian 
fellowship and religious friendship, and I serk 
ously and earnestly advise all young converts 
to cultivate it. They should not remain in 
solitude, having none with whom to exchange 
their thoughts, feelings, and solicitudes on those 
momentous topics which have lately possessed 
their minds. It is not good for them in this 
situation "to be alone." Solitary and seclud- 
ed piety, like the fire of a single coal, burns 
feebly ; but like that, is more easily kept alive 
and kindled to a flame by contact with other 
coals. Great care, however, is necessary in 
the selection of companions. This is true in 
reference to all stages of our Christian history, 
but especially to the first. Those who are 
established in the divine life can bear with less 
injury the influence of persons whose taste, 
habits; and conversation are uncongenial with 
the spirit of true piety, than can the young 
convert. It is therefore important he should 
choose for his associates not only those who are 



132 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

truly, but those who are eminently pious. 
There is among those whom we may hope to 
be sincere in their profession a very great dif- 
ference as regards the degree of their personal 
godliness. As there are those who are only 
almost Christians, there are others of whom it 
may be said, they are only just Christians. 
"While the former seem only just without the 
line of demarcation between the converted and 
unconverted, the latter only just within it. 
Their attainments are so slender, their religion 
is so feeble, their conversation and spirit are 
so worldly and trifling, that it is difficult to 
determine their real spiritual character. These 
are not the associates which will help on the 
young believer. They will damp his zeal and 
cool his first love. It will be like plunging his 
knife into earth, which instead of sharpening 
it, will take off its edge ; or like bearing his 
newly lighted taper into foul air, which will 
cause it to burn dimly, if it does not extinguish 
it. Instead of this, the inquirer after holiness 
and higher sanctification should associate with 
those who are as earnest as himself, or even 
more so : whose intelligence will instruct hini : 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 133 

whose example will guide him ; whose con* 
versation will inspire him ; whose cautions will 
warn him. Let him seek companions whose 
society will be as a prop round which his own 
young plant can entwine itself for support and 
growth, and by whose friendly aid his yet feeble 
tendrils shall be well sustained. 

7. Religious reading is of great service to 
all, whether old or young in the Christian life 
The Bible I know is the book of books, and 
should be supplanted by no other. But we 
would not imitate the conduct of the Caliph 
Omar, who committed the library of Alexan- 
dria to the flames, under the absurd idea that 
if the books contained only what was approved 
by the Koran, they were useless ; if what was 
contrary to it, they were pernicious. Our 
religious literature is as valuable as it is 
extensive. If it contains no other religious 
truth than that which is in the Bible, which if 
it be orthodox of course it cannot, it is still 
immensely valuable as explaining and enforc- 
ing that which is in the Bible. It is one part 
of the creed of Popery that the Bible does not 
contain the whole word of God, for tradition 



134 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

is a part of it ; and we scruple not to aver 
that their oral law is in many things opposed 
to the written one. We reject all such un- 
authorized and wicked attempts to corrupt the 
divine testimony, and ahide close to the writ- 
ten law or holy Scripture. But though we 
deny authority to the works of men, we attach 
great importance to them as eminently useful 
in helping you to understand the word of Grod, 
and therefore earnestly recommend the perusal 
of them. To pretend to select from the flood 
of publications which is flowing in upon us in 
this extraordinary age any works that might 
be recommended would be difficult and un- 
necessary, and had better be left to the coun- 
sel of those ministers with whom all young 
disciples are connected, and who, from a know- 
ledge of their state of mind or advance in 
religious subjects, might be supposed better to 
understand what is suitable for them. They 
who are really anxious for progress in the di- 
vine life, will not content themselves with the 
parlor reading of whatever religious books cr 
periodicals may happen to be thrown in their 
way, but will have some biographical or devo- 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 135 

tional work as a closet companion, the pages of 
which will be prayerfully read in those seasons 
of retirement when the soul secludes herself 
from all human society to converse with God. 
8. Occasional seasons of extraordinary de- 
votion, self-examination, and humiliation, will 
be found eminently conducive to progress. I 
am of course supposing, for I have already 
prescribed it, that a regular course of private 
prayer is kept up. But we all know that 
regularity is apt to degenerate into formality ; 
and what is customary, into mere routine. 
There may be the most exact order, and the 
most constant observance of religious exercises, 
and yet there may be nothing better than a 
dull round of observances. Hence it is indis- 
pensable that there should be occasional sea- 
sons of unusual devotion, when the soul shall 
take as exact account as it can of its state and 
condition. What has been already said on the 
subject of an excessive anxiety about our 
growth leading to almost a neglect of the 
means of progress, in an inquiry into the 
reality of progress, should be borne in mind. 
But still occasional examination into the state 



136 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

of our profession cannot be wrong, but must 
be right. A tradesman who is always taking 
stock, under a fidgety anxiety about his trade, 
would only divert his attention from that 
industry and persevering effort which are 
essential to success. Still, he ought occasion- 
ally to do this, for how else can he know how 
he is going on, or whether he is not going 
back. So also a nervous person always fear- 
ful about his health, and ever inquisitive into 
symptoms and poring into books to see how ill 
he is, instead of using all the means of obtain- 
ing and preserving health, is not very likely 
ever to be well. Yet sometimes, provided it 
does not occur too often or hinder him from 
present duties, he may inquire whether some 
chronic complaints are giving way, and whether 
his constitution is strengthening. We surely 
ought not to be less anxious about our soul's 
health than we are about that of our body ; 
and though a religious nervousness about theii 
soul, which really does distress some good 
people, should not be fostered, still an occasional 
examination into our spiritual condition ought 
to be instituted, and is really essential to prog- 



A1EANS OF PROGRESS. l3V 

ress. I do not see how wo are to know what 
corruptions exist and are to be mortified, or 
what graces languish and need to be revived, 
without occasional more minute inspection 
than we give to the subject in our ordinary/ 
conduct. In this age when secular matters 
are so pressing, I may say, so engrossing and 
absorbing ; when business so encroaches on 
devotion, and the time formerly given to the 
closet is taken away to be given to the shop ; 
when all men are living in a hurry, and life 
itself is one constant bustle ; surely, I say, at 
such a time as this, it is necessary sometimes 
to step out of the circle, and to enter the closet 
for pressing home upon the conscience the 
momentous question, "How am I going on in^ 
my heavenly course ?" Such seasons may be 
found, and if it can be at no other time, and 
in no other way, it is worth while to give up 
occasionally a sermon, and to spend the hour 
or two which would be otherwise devoted to 
that exercise in solitary communion with our 
own heart, with our Bible, and with our God 
9. This enumeration would be incomplete 
were I to leave out from it, as a means of prog- 



138 CHRISTIAN PRO&RESS. 

ress, those various afflictive events with which 
it pleases Grod sometimes to try, to shake, and 
ultimately to settle and strengthen the faith of 
his people. Plants and trees not unfrequently, 
in very dry seasons, require watering at the 
time of or soon after their planting ; and indeed 
all vegetable life depends much on the rain and 
the dew for its growth. Hence God said to 
the Jews, "I will be as the dew unto Israel." 
>Constant sunshine, especially for youthful 
vegetation, is unfriendly to prosperity. Hence 
Grod sometimes sees it necessary to darken the 
soul with cloud shadows, and cause the clouds 
themselves to pour down their contents on 
the young convert. Disappointed hopes of a 
worldly nature, frustrated schemes of happi- 
ness, and bodily sickness, even thus early 
come on some persons, all the more painful 
and depressing because occurring at the outset 
of life. "What," says the early sufferer, 
"must I so soon prove how treacherous are the 
smiles of the world : so soon learn by expe- 
rience that man is born to sorrow as the sparks 
fly upward ? Must my very morning of life 
be overcast, and the first stage of my journey 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 139 

be amidst storms ? Is my destiny so soon 
developed to be one of grief and lamentation ?" 
Hush those complaints, dry those tears, dis- 
miss this foreboding, my young friend. It is 
wisdom, though you cannot understand it; 
and mercy, though you cannot at present see 
it. Have you never read what is said by the 
weeping prophet, "It is good for a man that 
he bear the yoke in his youth." Lam. 3 : 24. 
Observe, it is not said, it is "pleasant," but 
"good." At the very outset of life take up the 
conviction that every thing' is good for us that 
is good for our souls ; and that Grod is the best 
judge of what is good for them. That very 
disappointment or other kind of affliction 
which cost you so many tears, such sleepless 
nights, such distress by days, was just the 
thing which your heavenly Father saw to be 
necessary at that time for your spiritual benefit. 
You were concerned about religion, and seemed 
in earnest ; but you were in danger of being 
too much taken up with the world which had 
come out to meet you on your way with smil- 
ing face and open arms. The syren song had 
sent its music into your ears, and you were 



140 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

all but ravished and ruined by the strain. 
And then Grod, by the affliction he sent upon 
you, warned you of your danger, and plucked 
you from its jaws. Many in your situation 
have been treated in the same manner, and 
have at length been compelled to say, 

" Foolish and vain, I went astray 

Ere I had felt thy scourges, Lord ; 
I left my guide and lost my way. 

But now I love and keep thy word." 

You recollect, perhaps, what Grod said to the 
Jews, " I spake unto thee in thy prosperity ; but 
thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy 
manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not 
my voice." Jer. 22 : 21. It required a change 
of circumstances to bring them to a right mind, 
and that change came and effected its own 
gracious purpose. Perhaps this may have been 
the case with you. Full of the buoyancy and 
eager expectation of youth, it was not likely 
religion could flourish in such a state of mind 
as that, and as (xod had purposes of mercy 
towards you he sent trials that he might effect 
his gracious designs. How strikingly is it said 
of Israel, "I will go and return to my place till 
they acknowledge their offence, and seek my 



MEANS OF PROGRESS 141 

face ; in their affliction they will seek me early."" 
Hos. 5 : 15. Yes, many, very many, will have 
cause through eternity to say, 

" Oh, hadst thou left me unchastised, 
Thy precepts I had still despised 5 
And still the snare, in secret laid, 
Had my unwary feet betrayed." 

I entreat you, therefore, to enter into Grod's 
gracious purpose, and thus gather grapes as it 
were from thorns, and figs from thistles, by ren- 
dering all your sorrows a means of progress in 
the divine life. Turn all these painful events 
to a good purpose to check your vanity, to curb 
your levity, and to establish you in the ways 
of the Lord. Let them show you the need of 
religion as a source of consolation amidst the 
vicissitudes of life, the power of religion to 
support you under them, and its ineffable sweet- 
ness to console as well as to support. I just 
now compared affliction to water, for so is it 
often represented in the word of Grod ; but not 
less frequently is it compared also to the action 
of fire. Perhaps you know that in enamel 
painting upon china this agent is employed, 
The colors are laid on, and then the article is 



142 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

put into a small furnace, and subjected to con- 
siderable heat, which at once brings out some 
of the colors more vividly, and gives fixedness 
and perpetuity to them all in the painting. In 
delineating the divine image upon your soul, 
something like this method of painting may by 
the divine hand be adopted, and the spiritual 
coloring may be burnt in and perpetuated by 
the furnace of affliction. Consider it a mercy 
to have the work of grace carried on, though it 
be by a process so painful as this. 

It will be very clearly, and it may be hoped 
impressively seen *by these particulars, that 
real religion is a very great thing, a matter of 
immense importance, and requiring great exer- 
tion. No doubt many who have made a pro- 
fession of it have formed very inadequate ideas 
of it, and are fearfully deceiving themselves, 
and it becomes all who shall read these pages 
to inquire what they know of these things. 
Religion, as we have shown you, is a battle 
which requires complete armor, and the busy 
use of weapons, in order to secure a doubtful 
victory — a race in which many run, but in 
which few will gain the prize — a narrow path 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 143 

by which many shall seek to pass through the 
gate of life, and by which the few only who 
strive shall make good their entrance into 
the paradise of God. It is only by dint ol 
painful and assiduous striving that salvation is 
at length secured ; and just as the racer may 
be said scarcely to have won, who with the 
utmost power and fleetness makes good his dis- 
tance by a hair's breadth of space, or within a 
moment of time, so is it said of the righteous 
by the apostle, that they are but " scarcely 
saved." 1 Pet. 4 : 18. This is a tremendous 
passage, and is enough to awaken " fear and 
trembling" in us all. The righteous are scarcely 
saved! They escape from the fire into safety, 
but as by a hair's breadth. How great is the 
difficulty of bringing them first to be in ear- 
nest about salvation ; how great the difficulty 
of keeping them from turning back and away 
amidst the temptations to sin, and the allure- 
ments of the world, by which they are sur- 
rounded ; how difficult to rescue them from the 
power of the great adversary of souls. Through 
the internal struggles of the mind, and outward 
conflicts of life, it often seems a matter of doubt 



144 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

whether, with all their efforts, they will be 
saved ; and when they are saved they will 
appear to themselves as mariners who have been 
rescued from shipwreck, who are amazed to 
see how near they seemed to destruction, and 
how unlikely to all human appearance it seemed 
at one time they should be saved at all. Oh, 
is this true ? then how few comparatively are 
in the way to be saved. "Where, we ask, are 
those who are comporting themselves in a way 
answerable to such a representation : eagerly, 
anxiously as for their lives, striving to flee from 
the wrath to come, and conscious that if they 
are saved, it will be so as by fire ? Amidst the 
multitudes who in this day are making a pro- 
fession of religion, how rarely are they to be 
seen who are diligently plying at the taskwork 
of Christianity ; who are making a real busi- 
ness of their growing sanctification ; who are 
laboring for heaven as if pursued by a convic- 
tion that without effort they will never reach 
it, and that even after their utmost labors they 
will but save their distance, and scarcely reach 
the goal to which they are tending. Is it not 
time to sound the alarm, and especially in the 



MEANS OF PROGRESS. 145 

case of those who are just, according to their 
own declaration, setting out in the pursuit of 
eternal life? 

If any on reading this should say, as did the 
apostles, "Who then can be saved?" I adopt 
our Lord's reply, "With man it is impossible, 
but with God all things are possible." To 
every earnest soul Jesus says, " My grace is 
sufficient for thee." 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

Now turn back your attention upon the con- 
tents of this chapter, with even more solicitude, 
because of the greater importance of the sub- 
ject, than you would in a time of bodily weak- 
ness upon some directions which had been 
given you concerning your health. First of all, 
however, ask with serious and earnest concern 
the questions, 

Am I really so anxious to grow in grace as 
to be using all the necessary means for that 
purpose ? Am I serving my soul as I do my 
body, that is, by being careful about my spirit- 
ual health, and adopting all proper measures, 
and diligently employing them to promote if 

Chr. Pros. 1 



146 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

Have I solicitude enough about this matter to 
be active and earnest in the use of means ? 

Do I really want to grow ? 

Do I hunger and thirst after righteousness ? 

Do I take pains for this self-cultivation ? 

Do I most constantly and seriously attend all 
the means of grace, public as well as private, 
and week-days as well as Sabbath-days ? 

Do I constantly, devoutly, read and study 
the holy Scriptures, not allowing other books 
to supplant the Bible ? And do I search them 
to be made more holy ? 

Do I feel my need of the Holy Spirit's in- 
fluence, and am I constantly wrestling with 
Grod to bestow it upon me ? 

Do I court the society of the more establish- 
ed and spiritual members of the family of God ? 

Do I set apart special times for self-exami- 
nation, humiliation, and prayer ? 

Am I improved and made more holy and 
spiritual by my afflictions, disappointments, and 
vexations ? 

Reader, I beseech you, bring yourself to this 
touchstone. You cannot progress unless you 
are anxious to do so, and use the means. 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS 147 



CHAPTER IV. 

MISTAKES CONCERNING PROGRESS. 

Suppose a man were on a journey which was 
of considerable importance to all his temporal 
interests, on which it was every way desirable 
he should be going forward with all convenient 
speed. Imagine also that through some igno- 
rance of the country, or through his want of 
acquaintance with his rate of speed, he should 
conclude that he was advancing towards his 
destined point, while at the same time, though 
in constant activity, he was making no progress, 
but only wandering about in by-lanes and cross- 
roads, and still remaining near the spot from 
which he started. In such a case, he might 
lose the end and purpose of his journey. Now, 
there is something not unlike this in the course 
of some persons in regard to religion. They 
are in motion, but not in progress. The mis- 
takes on this subject are very numerous, and 
require great pains in those who have to teach, 



148 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

to point them out ; and also attention on the 
part of all who have any solicitude about their 
spiritual welfare, in order to be acquainted with 
them. The temptations of the father of lies, 
aided by the deceitfulness of the human heart, 
originate many very injurious errors concerning 
our spiritual condition, and lull us into a state 
of complacency, where we ought to be deeply 
solicitous and somewhat alarmed. 

1. It is not an unfrequent case for persons 
to conclude they are advancing, because they 
are not, in their own view of their case, actu- 
ally receding. They do not see any outward 
and visible signs of backsliding. They have 
fallen into no grievous sin, and have brought 
no blot upon their character, nor discredit upon 
their profession. They are not conscious of any 
known departure from the way of rectitude, 
and have not fallen from their steadfastness. 
Their usual round of duties is performed, and 
they have not subjected themselves, by any part 
of their conduct, to rebuke or censure. All 
this may be so, and yet there may be no prog- 
ress. Is it enough to stand still on our path ? 
Would it satisfy the man on the journey just 



MISTAKES AS TO l J ltOG-RESS. 149 

alluded to, if he could merely say, " I am not 
going back ?" Would this prove he was advanc- 
ing ? It may be said, and we have already said 
it, that in one sense not to advance is to recede 
But were it not so, surely to stand still is noi 
to go forward. Have you more knowledge, 
more holiness, more love, more spirituality, than 
you had ? Is your growth at all perceptible, 
though it be in ever so small a degree ? Do not 
compare yourselves with some who are rapidly 
going back, and imagine that in relation to 
them you are going forward, while you are 
standing still. Have you ever, when travelling 
in a steam-carriage, while your own railway 
train was stopping at the station, and another 
was passing slowly in a contrary direction, 
imagined that it was you that were in prog- 
ress ? So is it in this case. You may be quite 
at rest, while compared with others going back 
you seem to be in motion forwards. 

2. Some estimate progress by the time they 
have been in motion. Suppose a person unac- 
quainted with the rate of speed of a ship at sea, 
and not understanding the influence of contrary 
winds, and the process of getting slowly on by 



150 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

tacking, were to calculate thus, " "We have been 
so many hours or days at sea, and we must 
therefore be so far on our voyage." Suppose 
the man on the journey to have fallen asleep, 
or loitered away his time, and then, taking out 
his watch, were to calculate that because he 
left home so many hours since, he must be get- 
ting on very well. Is there nothing like this 
in some professing Christians ? It is so many 
months or years since they took up their stand- 
ing as religious persons. They have been all 
this while regular attendants on public worship, 
and communicants at the Lord's supper. They 
have heard already innumerable sermons, and 
read many good books. They have outlived 
the novelties of a religious life, and the ways 
of Grod are now familiar to them. How can it 
be doubted, they say, that they who have been 
so long on the road are advancing ? Ah, this 
is just calculating progress by time, rather than 
by distance. Be it known to you, that a pro- 
fessed Christian may be long, very long, in 
standing ; yes, and after all, it is but standing 
without going'. A dead stick, however long it 
may be in the ground, will not grow. Finger- 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 151 

posts stand for ages, and measure distances for 
travellers, but never advance an inch. Do not 
conclude, then, that because your conversion is 
supposed to have taken place long since, that 
therefore your sanctification must be far ad- 
vanced. It is a pitiable sound, and argues an 
imbecile mind, as well as a diminutive body, 
to hear a poor dwarf cripple say, " I must be 
growing, for I am ten years old." It may be, 
but every body else sees that the poor child's 
stature never increases an inch. Let the Chris- 
tian not think of the years he has lived, but the 
attainment he has made. The length of his 
profession ought to be attended by an advance 
in all that constitutes vital godliness, proportion- 
ate to the advantages he has enjoyed and the 
time he has had them ; but alas, alas, how 
rarely is this the case. In the orchard or vine- 
yard, young trees may be growing when they 
bear no fruit, and a stranger may be ready to 
say they make no progress ; but the skilful 
gardener says, " Grive them time, and they will 
exhibit produce." And when they do bear fruit, 
it is in proportion to their age. In the garden 
of the Lord, young plants ought to fructify im- 



162 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

mediately, and the fruits of righteousness should 
be also in proportion to their age. But is it so ? 
How many whose eye shall read these pages 
will blush, if they have any holy shame, to 
compare the date of their planting in the courts 
of the Lord, and the produce they yield. 

3. There may be an increase of theoretic 
knowledge, and of ability to talk with fluency 
upon the subjects of religion, and to defend the 
truth against gainsayers, ivithout any corre- 
sponding advance in spiritual feeling and 
holy conduct. There is a great deal of very 
interesting matter in the Bible, apart from its 
spiritual and vital power as Grod's instrument of 
sanctification. Its history, its poetry, its sub- 
limity, its chronology, its eloquence, its proph- 
ecies, its pathos, all may become subjects of 
study, and even of delightful study, without 
faith in its doctrines or obedience to its pre- 
cepts. Thousands and thousands of volumes 
have been written on religion by men whose 
hearts were never under its power. Some of 
the noblest productions of sacred science have 
issued from the pens of those to whom, it is to 
be feared, it was all mere theory. Like bril 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 153 

liant lamps, they lighted others on their way 
to heaven, but never moved themselves ; or to 
raise still higher the metaphor, they were like 
lighthouses, which directed ships on their 
course, but were stationary themselves. In 
more private life, and less important attain- 
ments, how many have made themselves ac- 
quainted' with the theory of divine truth, as 
taught in books, sermons, articles, creeds, and 
catechisms, so as to be able to explain the or- 
thodox system of doctrine, and to argue for ijfc* 
whose hearts have never been sanctified by the 
truth. And even where it may be hoped the 
great change has been wrought, and a start 
made for salvation and eternal life, there may 
be a growth in knowledge without a proportion- 
ate growth in grace. Many young persons are 
now happily engaged in Sunday-school teach- 
ing, the distribution of religious tracts, and 
various other operations of religious zeal, which 
give them of necessity a growing acquaintance 
with the system of religious truth. They can 
talk with more fluency and correctness on di- 
vine things. History, doctrine, and precept, 
are all more familiar to them, and at the same 



154 CHRISTIAN PROG-BESS 

time their thoughts are more drawn to the sub- 
ject of religion generally as the matter of their 
teaching. Hence, there may seem to be to 
themselves a perceptible progress. And so there 
is in theory. But if at the same time there is 
no advance in holiness, Christian charity, con- 
scientiousness, self-denial, and humility, these 
signs of advance may be, and are, all deceptive. 
Their knowledge has been collected, not as the 
materials of personal sanctity, but of activity. 
Such acquisitions may be only the " knowledge 
which pufteth up," but not "the love that edi- 
fieth." 

There are persons whose acquaintance with 
Scripture is surprising, and yet who, though 
they could quote most aptly from nearly all 
parts of the Bible, give too convincing proof 
that their knowledge is of the letter only, and 
not of the spirit. I knew a person who was so 
intimately acquainted with the Scriptures, that 
if you gave him any chapter or verse in most 
of the books of either the Old Testament or 
New, he would immediately repeat the words ; 
and yet he w r as altogether an unconverted man. 
And I was acquainted with another who was 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 155 

so fond of the study of prophecy that he became 
more conversant with the predictions of the 
books of Daniel and of the Apocalypse than any 
one I ever knew, who was at the same time 
entirely a man- of the world. Yet there are 
many who regard this increasing acquaintance 
with the text of the Bible as an evidence of 
growth in grace. While, therefore, we would 
urge every young convert to make a longer and 
Larger acquaintance with the word of God, 
assuring them that there can be no growth in 
grace without some advance in knowledge, and 
that the more knowledge of it they have the 
more they are prepared to be useful, happy, and 
holy, provided they couple with it other things, 
yet that at the same time there may be large 
increase of knowledge without any growth in 
grace. Ask yourselves then the solemn ques- 
tion, and ask it solemnly too, whether in pro- 
portion as you store your minds with biblical 
texts and biblical ideas, you all the while are 
seeking to have your heart filled with biblical 
feelings, and your life with biblical actions. Is 
your advancing light attended with increasing 
warmth? As you grow in acquaintance with 



156 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

the character of God, do you reverence him 
more? As your ideas brighten on the person 
of Christ, do you love him more ? As you be- 
come more acquainted with the perfection and 
spirituality of God's law, do you delight in it 
more and more after the inward man ? As you 
see more clearly the evil of sin, do you hate it 
with a more intense hatred ? As your horizon 
widens, do you become more profoundly humble, 
more tenderly conscientious, more gentle, more 
spiritual ? Unless this be the case you are in 
a fatal mistake by supposing you are making 
progress in the divine life, merely because you 
are advancing in biblical science. 

4. In some persons there is a growing know- 
ledge of their corruptions, and perhaps an 
increase of lamentation over them, unattended 
by any disposition or effort to mortify them ; 
and yet this growing light into the depravity of 
their nature, and this real vexation, for so it 
may be called, rather than godly sorrow, leads 
to no proportionate mortification of sin. There 
can be little doubt that many do know more 
and more of the plague of their own hearts, 
and are made continually more sorrowful by it, 



MISTAKES AS TO PltOG-RESS. 157 

who content themselves with venting their 
unavailing regrets, and make no progress in 
removing the evils they deplore, and yet con- 
clude that this growing self-knowledge is an 
evidence of growing piety. So it would be if 
it were followed up by amendment. " Godly 
sorrow worketh repentance," that is, reforma- 
tion. And that sorrow is not godly, however 
pungent it may be, and however miserable it 
may make the man, which does not produce 
reformation. Many a holy Christian is made 
more and more holy, with less of misery on 
account of sin, just because his grief, whether 
greater or less, leads to amendment, than he 
who, whatever may be his mortification of 
feeling, does not carry it on to a mortification 
of sin. "What should we say of a housewife 
who made herself continually miserable about 
the disorder and uncleanliness of her house, but 
who took no pains to rectify the confusion and 
to expurgate the filth? It is to be greatly 
feared that very many professors of religion 
satisfy themselves with being made unhappy 
by the knowledge and experience of then* sins. 
They are loud in their lamentations, ample in 



158 CHRISTIAN- PROGRESS. 

their confessions, and seemingly profound in 
their humiliations. But there the matter ends. 
They who heard their self-abasing acknow- 
ledgments yesterday, see them no better to- 
day. They are like some valetudinarians, 
whose diseases arise, in great measure, from 
their own indulgence, who are ever complain- 
ing of their ailments, and ever lamenting as 
well as continuing their imprudence, but who 
will never exercise that self-denial which is the 
only way to restoration, and who yet imagine 
it is a sign of growing attention to their health, 
because there is an increasing disposition to 
lament their sickness and to confess their im- 
prudence. 

5. A very common error is to mistake a 
growth of sectarianism for an increase of grace 
Perhaps there is no delusion more common than 
this. Ecclesiastical polity and sacramental ob- 
servances, as matters of divine revelation, are 
both of some importance ; yet it is perfectly 
clear, from the testimony of Scripture, that they 
are of less consequence in the divine life, than 
faith, hope, and love. "The kingdom of G-od 
is not meat and drink ; but righteousness, and 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 159 

peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom. 
14 : 17. " In Jesus Christ neither circumcision 
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision ; but 

FAITH WHICH WORKETH BY LOVE." Gal. 5:6. 

If these passages mean any thing, they teach 
us the entire subordination of what is ceremo- 
nial to what is spiritual. To see a person more 
interested in, and more zealous for some ritual 
observance than the cultivation of charity — 
attaching more importance, both as matter 
of experience and controversy, to baptism and 
the external form of the church, than to the 
doctrines of justification, regeneration, and sanc- 
tification, marks a state of mind very different 
from that which is inculcated by the precepts, 
and manifested in the conduct of the sacred 
writers. The great object of the apostles was 
to cherish in their converts the spirit of faith 
and the practice of holiness. Yet we very often 
see a different line of conduct, both in the 
teachers and professors of religion in the present 
day, by many of whom an extraordinary zeal 
is manifested for either established or unestab- 
lished churches, as the case might be, and for 
a more elaborate or a more simple ceremonial ; 



160 CHRISTIAN PROaHESS. 

while little concern is felt or expressed to incul- 
cate "the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, 
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance." Gal. 5 : 22. 

We not unfrequently see young professors, 
when their first concern about religion is over, 
taking up with the ardor of eager novices these 
secondary matters, and becoming zealots for 
supporting, defending, and propagating them. 
This is sometimes especially apparent in those 
who have lately transferred themselves from 
one section of the universal church to another. 
Proselytes, as if to prove the sincerity of their 
conviction, and recommend themselves to their 
new party, usually, in supporting their novel 
opinions, excel in zeal those by whom these 
notions have been long held. A change of this 
kind has, in some cases, effected a complete 
transformation of character, and they who were 
before all torpor, are now all activity and energy ; 
not, indeed, for the great fundamental truths 
on which all Christians agree, but for those 
minor matters on which they differ. Church- 
men, that as such were dull and lethargic, have, 
on becoming dissenters, been all life and energy, 



MISTAKES AS TO PROG-RESS. 161 

not so much for faith, love, and holiness, but 
for non-conformity ; while on the other hand dis- 
senters, who while such were supine and inert, 
on entering the establishment, have become the 
zealous advocates and propagators of perhaps 
even high-church principles. Let not persons 
of this description mistake such sectarianism 
for advancement in the divine life. This holy 
vitality has reference rather to the principles on 
which all are agreed, than to those minor mat- 
ters on which they differ. A mighty furor about 
non-conformity, or a most impassioned zeal for 
religious establishments, may comport with very 
little vital godliness; yea, the former may go 
far to enfeeble the latter. Instead therefore of 
such a state of mind indicating progress, it 
manifests a retrogression. The man has become 
more of a dissenter or churchman, but perhaps 
less of a spiritual, humble, and simple-minded 
Christian. It is the human element in their 
religion, not the divine, that has strengthened ; 
ihe shell that has thickened, not the kernel that 
has enlarged. There has been motion, but it 
is a lateral one from the straight line, not a 
progress in the right direction. It is a going 

Chr. Prog 1 1 



162 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

down and going tack from primary to secondary 
matters. An excrescence has grown upon the 
tree, but the tree itself has been hindered and 
not helped in its advance. 

6. Much the same remark will apply to 
a growing attachment to some particular 
preacher, which is not always of itself a proof 
of progress in religion. "We are allowed our 
preference even in this matter ; for though it 
is the message rather than the messenger, the 
truth rather than the preacher, that is to be 
the ground of our attachment, yet it cannot in 
the nature of things be otherwise than that we 
should prefer one minister to another. He 
may have been the instrument of our conver- 
sion, or the means of our establishment ; or 
independently of these matters he may more 
clearly explain, and more powerfully enforce 
God's truth ; or even without this his natural 
abilities with equal orthodoxy and piety may 
be more to our taste ; and on all these ground? 
preference, within certain limits, is allowed. 
But nothing in a young convert requires 
greater care and effort to keep down excess, 
than ministerial attachment, lest it should 



mistakes as to progress. i63 

degenerate into exclusiveness and spiritual 
idolatry. This is a danger into which multi- 
tudes run. They make this pulpit favorite 
not only the standard of all excellence hut its 
monopolist. They think meanly of every one 
else. They can hear, or at any rate relish no 
other. When he preaches elsewhere they 
follow him ; or if they cannot do this, they 
make up their mind not to profit by his sub- 
stitute. This actually grows upon them till 
he is every thing, and all other ministers noth- 
ing. Now this very attachment is by some 
supposed to be a proof of progress ; especially 
in the case of those who formerly cared noth- 
ing about this minister or any other. They 
now feel pleasure in hearing him, but then it 
is confined to him, and this preference, instead 
of leading them to love him for the sake of the 
truth he preaches, leads them rather to love the 
truth for the sake of the preacher. If with 
their preference for him, they united a delight 
in hearing all who preach the same truths ; 
and his preaching had formed in them a taste 
for evangelical doctrines, instead of for one man 
who preached them, this would be a blessed 



164 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

result, and one that would prove advance in 
religion. Perhaps there are few evidences more 
conclusive of progress than such a state of mind 
as is described in the following reflections : " At 
my first setting out in the ways of religion, J 
felt a preference for my minister so strong, that 
I could hear with pleasure no other. I was 
disappointed and discontented if I saw any one 
else in the pulpit, and' thought the sermon 
scarcely worth listening to. I now see it was 
more an attachment to the preacher himself 
than to his message. True, I was pleased with 
his doctrine, hut still more with his manner of 
setting it forth. As my knowledge of divine 
truth increased, and I become more and more 
in love with this, I found my delight more and 
more drawn off from the preacher to his doc- 
trine. Till now, with my preference for him 
above all others still remaining, I am so much 
taken up with the truth as it is in Jesus, and 
feel so much more the importance of the matter 
than the manner, that I can hear any one with 
pleasure who, with tolerable ability, explains 
and enforces the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God. It is the man who opens most clearly to 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 165 

my judgment the truth of God's word, and 
enforces it most powerfully upon my heart and 
conscience, and carries on my growth in know- 
ledge, peace, and holiness — that is the preacher 
I love most." There is no mistake here. 

7. Somewhat analogous to this, , some mis- 
take a groiving delight in some particular 
theory, or some particular parts, aspects, and 
subjects of the Bible, for progress in the divine 
life. "All Scripture," to quote this passage 
again, "is given by inspiration of God, and is 
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
for instruction in righteousness, that the man 
of (rod may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
unto all good works." But all Scripture is not 
equally adapted to foster the strength and pro- 
mote the health of the soul. Now it is clear to 
any one who will attentively study the New 
Testament, that the truth by which we are to 
be sanctified, the doctrine which is according 
to godliness, the "perfection" which is distin- 
guished from first principles, is the mediatorial 
character and work of Christ. This seems to 
be plain from our Lord's words, "Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the 



166 CHRISTIAN PROORESS. 

Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life 
in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise 
him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat 
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." John 
6 : 53-55. This is a most momentous passage, 
and deserves the very serious attention of all, 
and especially of young converts. It is of vast 
consequence, in corporeal dietetics, to know 
what is the most nourishing food, and what 
will sustain the strength and increase the stat- 
ure of the body. Can it be less so in the die- 
tetics of the soul? Here then, by Him who 
came to give life, by the Physician of the soul, 
we are told upon what food the gxowing Chris- 
tian must live. In these words our Lord did 
not, could not, mean to be understood literally. 
By his flesh and blood, he meant his body 
offered up in sacrifice, and his blood shed as 
an atonement for sin ; and by eating his flesh 
and drinking his blood, he intended nourishing 
the divine life by the knowledge, the faith, the 
contemplation of his death as it is set forth in 
the Scriptures. The study of every thing that 
stands connected with the death of Christ, 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 167 

whether it be in the types of the ceremonial 
law, the predictions of the prophets, the nar- 
ratives of the gospels, the doctrines of the 
epistles, or the sublime visions of the Apoca- 
lypse, this is the food of the soul, the manna 
from heaven, the bread of life. This is "meat 
indeed" and " drink indeed" "Whosoever with 
hungry appetite feeds upon this, will grow ; and 
whosoever neglects this, will become lean and 
weak. Now, there is a proneness in some to 
neglect this, and endeavor to support their 
spiritual strength by something else. It is not 
the study of the natural history, or chronology, 
or historical facts, or beautiful poetry, or pathet- 
ic narratives, or sublime compositions of the 
Bible, that will best sustain our strength, and 
yet some are thus attempting it. They see 
many beauties in the Bible to which they were 
formerly blind. They are enamoured with the 
sublimities, for instance, of the book' of Job or 
Isaiah. They admire the wondrous wisdom of 
the book of Proverbs. They luxuriate amidst 
the pathos of the history of Joseph, or the 
morality of the sermon upon the mount. 
Their attachment to those parts of revelation 



168 CHRISTIAN PROGK.ESS. 

is rather growing than declining, and in proper 
measure all this is highly commendable. Such 
books as Kitto's " Daily Readings" should be 
read, and cannot be read without admiration, 
and exquisite delight, and valuable informa- 
tion. And many do read them with these 
feelings, and hence they imagine they are pro- 
gressing in religion, although they have little 
relish, perhaps, for the doctrines of the gospel, 
the mediation of Christ, the salvation into 
which the prophets inquired diligently, and 
the angels desired to look. They do not feed 
on the flesh and blood of the great sacrifice. 

8. There may be a mistake made, by the 
mortification of some one sin, while others are 
left unsubdued. It is so far an advance if one 
enemy of our soul, from right motives and by 
right means, be destroyed. And in the work 
of spiritual improvement it is wise and well, 
instead of losing our time and wasting our ener- 
gies in mere general and unsystematic mortifi- 
cation, to select occasionally some one sin to 
begin with in the way of more direct and con- 
centrated attack ; and no doubt the crucifixion 
of that corruption, the cutting off of that r: 



MISTAKES AS £0 PB.OGRESS. 169 

hand, or" the plucking out of thaVright eye, is a 
gain in sanctification, a step in advance, and a 
means of gaining other victories. But what I am 
anxious to guard you against is, the supposi- 
tion that because some one evil to which you 
may be more strongly tempted is abandoned, or 
some practice which may militate against your 
health, or interest, or comfort, is given up, you 
are going on. Sin may be discontinued for va- 
rious reasons. A drunkard may give up his 
inebriety, not because it^is sinful, but hurtful. 
Another may discontinue some fraudulent prac- 
tice, not because it is forbidden by Grod, but is 
disgraceful in the estimation of man. A young 
professor may give up some ensnaring worldly 
amusements, not because he is afraid of their 
influence upon his spiritual welfare, but because 
they make too great inroads upon his purse. It 
is not therefore the abstract abandonment of a 
sin, but the motive which leads to it, which is 
a proof of the work of grace. " How shall I do 
this great wickedness, and sin against Grod ? " 
This must lie as the motive at the base of all 
mortification of sin. And then moreover, the 
destruction of any one sin must be viewed and 



170 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

carried on as*a part of the purpose and the act 
for the destruction of all sin. 

I now proceed to enumerate and to correct 
some mistakes of a contrary nature to those just 
considered. I mean such as are committed by 
those who are making progress, and yet are 
somewhat anxious and distressed under suppo- 
sition that they are not; and even fearing that 
they are declining. 

The cases are perhaps not numerous of persons 
deeply concerned ahout salvation, really earnest 
in religion, and yet harassed with the apprehen- 
sion that they are at a stand still, or even going 
back. There is a sincere desire to advance in ho- 
liness, and to increase in spirituality ; and they 
are even diligent in the use of means to accom- 
plish that end. In reference to them, I do not 
hesitate to say that their very state of mind is 
itself an evidence of progression. This solicitude 
is itself advancement. The very desire of im- 
provement, the will to go on, the longing after 
greater attainment, is improvement. It is itself 
an impulse — a forgetting the things that are be- 
hind, and a reaching forward unto those things 
that are before. There cannot be a more convmc- 



MISTAKES AS TO PROG-RESS. 171 

ing proof of halting or retrograding, than com- 
placency in ourselves. "While, on the other hand, 
a growing disposition to find fault with our- 
selves, and humble ourselves, and really improve 
ourselves, is one of the brightest indications of 
our going forward, provided there is all diligence 
in the use of the means of self-improvement. 

Some are fearful that they are not making 
progress because their feelings are not so viv- 
idly excited in religious matters as they for- 
merly ivere. They are not as easily and pow- 
erfully wrought upon either in the way of joy 
and sorrow, hope and fear, as they once were. 
They have not those lively and ecstatic states 
of mind which they formerly experienced when 
they began the divine life. 

Here we must just glance at the constitution 
of our nature. Religion exerts its influence 
over all the faculties of the soul ; it calls into 
exercise the understanding, engages the deter- 
mination of the will, moves the affections, and 
quickens the conscience. The same differences 
of natural constitution will be observable in 
some degree in the new or spiritual nature as 
existed in the old or physical one. A person of 



172 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

great sensibility in ordinary things will, after 
conversion, be so in spiritual ones ; while they 
of little emotion in the former, will exhibit the 
same phase of mind in the latter. The sensi- 
bility or emotional state of the mind depends 
very much, therefore, on our physical organiza 
tion. Now it is a very wrong criterion of the 
reality and degree of our religion to judge of it 
only by the exercise of the affections. Some 
persons of excitable natures are easily moved 
to joy and sorrow, hope and fear. The power 
of poetry or eloquence, of sights of distress or 
rapture, over their feelings is irresistible, while 
at the same time their judgments are not propor- 
tionately employed, their wills not in the same 
measure engaged, and their conscience but little 
moved. Take, for instance, the sentimental 
readers of novels, how by fits they are melted 
to tears or excited to ecstasies. Yet how idle 
and unemployed are all the other faculties of 
the soul. There is no virtue in all this. It is 
mere sympathetic emotion. Now look at the 
philanthropist. He may not be a man of tears, 
or of strong and vivid emotions of any kind, 
but he is a man of principle. His understand- 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 173 

ing comprehends the circumstances of some 
case of deep distress, and he judges it is right 
to pity and relieve it. His heart, though not 
wrought up to extreme anguish, so as to fill his 
eyes with tears and his mouth with loud lam- 
entation, feels for the miserable object ; his will 
resolutely determines at once to help the suf- 
ferer ; and his conscience, which would con- 
demn him if he did not, approves the deter- 
mination. You will particularly notice what 
constituted the virtue of the good man : not 
wholly the emotional excitement, for there was 
very little, but the dictates of the judgment, 
the determination of the will, and the action 
which was performed under these conjoint pow- 
ers. So it is in religion, which consists partly 
of the exercise of all the faculties, but chiefly 
of the judgment, will, and conscience. The 
heart is of course engaged, for we must love 
Grod and hate sin ; we must delight in Christ 
and fear the wrath to come ; but the amount of 
vivid emotion is of little consequence, compared 
with an enlightened judgment, showing us 
clearly what is right and wrong ; a determined 
will to avoid the evil and perform the good ; 



174 CIIRISTIAK PROGRESS. 

and a tender conscience shrinking from the 
least sin. Emotion is, to a certain extent, 
instinctive, involuntary, and irrepressible. Not 
so with judgment, will, and conscience. It is 
not, therefore, the amount of feeling, but of 
willing and doing, and approving or condemn- 
ing, that determines the state of religion. There 
is such a thing, I know — and alas, it is a very 
common one — as losing " first love," and it is 
marked by our Lord with his disapprobation in 
his address to the church at Ephesus ; but many 
distress themselves on this account who have 
no need to do so. Their ardor perhaps, at first, 
was in some measure the excitement of animal 
feeling, which will soon die away of course, 
though their real practical love may not be 
diminished, but may be growing stronger. 
When a son returns home after a long ab- 
sence, especially if he be a reclaimed prodigal, 
and meets his parents, brothers, and sisters, 
there is a glow of feeling, a joyousness of emo- 
tion, which cannot be expected to continue 
always, and which he may never be able to re- 
call again, though he may be ever growing in 
real attachment to his friends and his home. 



MISTAKES AS TO PROG-RESS. 175 

From all these it will be seen that the emo- 
tional part of religion may be, and is, by many, 
overestimated. The question is not merely 
what we can feel, but what we can do, for 
Christ ; not how many tears we can shed, but 
how many sins we can mortify ; not what rap- 
tures we can experience, but what self-denial 
we can practise ; not what happy frames we 
can enjoy, but what holy duties we can per- 
form ; not simply how much we can luxuriate 
at sermon or at sacrament, but how much we 
can exhibit of the mind of Jesus in our inter- 
course with our fellow-men ; not only how far 
above earth we can rise to the bliss of heaven, 
but how much of the love and purity of heaven 
we can bring down to earth ; in short, not how 
much of rapt feeling we can indulge, but how 
much of religious principle we can bring to 
bear on our whole conduct. 

It is evident, therefore, there may be prog 
ress where there is a fear that there has beei? 
declension. The vividness of feeling may havt. 
subsided, but if the firmness of principle has 
been strengthened, it is only like the decadence 
of the blossom when the fruit has set. The 



176 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

joy might not "be so great, but it may be more 
intelligent, more solid, and more sober. Just 
as the exuberant delight of the child, when it 
passes off, leaves the pleasure of the youth less 
noisy, but more rational. The frames and 
feelings may be less rapturous, but they may 
at the same time be less idolized, less depended 
upon, less put in the place of Christ. The 
young Christian is less pleased with self, but 
sees more of the glory of the Saviour ; his own 
righteousness appears more imperfect and de- 
filed, and is therefore less loved, but the right- 
eousness of the Saviour comes out before him 
more beautiful, glorious, and necessary. 

Distress is sometimes felt in consequence of 
mistaking a clearer vieiv and deeper sense of 
depravity for an actual increase of it. This 
is by no means an uncommon case. The young 
Christian seems sometimes to himself to be 
growing worse, when in fact it is only that he 
sees more clearly what in fact he really is In 
the early stages of religion we have usually 
but a slender acquaintance with the evil of 
sin or the depravity of the heart. The mind 
is so much taken up with pardon and eternal 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 177 

life, and even, indeed, with transition from 
death to life, that it is hut imperfectly ac- 
quainted with those depths of deceit and wick- 
edness which lie hid in itself. And the young 
convert is almost surprised to hear older and 
more experienced Christians talk of the corrup- 
tions of their nature. It is almost one of the 
first things one should suppose they would feel, 
yet it is one of the last they effectually learn, 
that religion is a constant conflict in man's 
heart upon earth, between sin and holiness. 
At first they seem to feel as if the serpent were 
killed, but they soon find that he was only 
scotched, for by the warmth of some fiery 
temptation, he is revived and hisses at them 
again, so as to require renewed blows for his 
destruction. Nothing astonishes an inexperi- 
enced believer more than the discoveries he is 
continually making of the evils of his heart. 
Corruptions which he never dreamt to be in 
him, are brought out by some new circum- 
stances into which he is brought. It is like 
turning up the soil, which brings out worms 
and insects that did not appear upon the sur- 
face. Or to vary the illustration, his increasing 

Chr Prog. 12 



178 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

knowledge of God's holy nature, of the per- 
fect law, and the example of Christ, is like 
opening the shutters, and letting light into a 
dark room, the filth of which the inhabitant 
did not see till the sunbeams disclosed it to 
him. 

Sometimes the young convert is discour- 
aged because he does not increase as fast as he 
expected ; and supposes, because he does not 
accomplish all, and as speedily as he looked 
for, that he does not advance at all. The ex- 
pectations of young Christians are sometimes 
as irrational as the child's who sowed his seed 
in the morning, and went out in the evening 
to see if it was above ground. The recent 
convert sometimes imagines that sanctification 
is easy to work, and advance, for a regenerated 
soul, a thing to be accomplished by a succes- 
sion of strides, if not indeed by one bound 
after another. But the remains of old Adam 
within him soon prove too string to allow this 
unimpeded course of Christian progression. Ho 
knew he had difficulties to surmount, but he 
calculated on getting over them with ease — 
that he had enemies to conflict with, but then 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 179 

he hoped to go on by rapid victories from con- 
quering to conquer. He is disappointed ; and 
now imagines he makes no way at all. But 
why should he so hastily decide against him- 
self ? All growth is slow, and that is slowest 
of all which is to last the longest. The mush- 
room springs up in a night : so did Jonah's 
gourd ; and in a night it perished. The oak 
requires centuries for its coming to perfection. 
Some mistake by supposing they do not ad- 
vance at all because they do not get on so fast 
as some others. "We would by no means en- 
courage neglect, indifference, or contentment 
with small measures of grace. On the contrary, 
we urge the greatest diligence. We say, go on 
unto perfection. They who are contented with 
what grace they suppose they have, give fear- 
ful evidence that they have none at all. To 
be self-satisfied is to be self-deceived. Still, 
as in nature so in grace, all do not grow with 
equal rapidity, or advance to equal strength 
and stature. It is so with flowers in a garden, 
trees in a plantation, children in a family, 
boys at school, ships at sea, or travellers upon 
the land. There is progress in all, but in dif- 



180 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

ferent degrees. Yet of which of all these can 
it be said, they make no advance, because they 
de not advance as fast as the foremost. The 
use we should make of the superior attain- 
ments of the more eminent of Grod's servants 
is, neither to envy them, nor to discourage our 
hearts, but to find in them a stimulus and an 
encouragement to seek larger measures of faith 
and holiness for ourselves. 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

Reader, this is an unspeakably important 
chapter for you to ponder. You must not pass 
from it in haste, but linger, and muse longer 
and deeper. You must now take up the 
candle of the Lord, as I have said, ai^d go down 
into the very depths of the soul, to search its 
hidden recesses. Nor should you trust to your 
own inspection and scrutiny. Like David, you 
should earnestly pray to Grod to search you, 
and reveal your real state to you. Psalm 
139:23, 24. He knew how prone we are to 
self-love and self-deception ; how sin lies hidden 
in the folds of the heart's deceit, and therefore 
he begged the trial and scrutiny of eyes more 



MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 181 

piercing and less partial than his own. So 
must you. We are all liable to judge too favor- 
ably of our own case. Do, do consider the 
fatal, the dreadful, the eternal consequences of 
a mistake on this subject. Oh, the idea of 
imagining we are going on to heaven, when 
step by step we are advancing to hell. Is this 
possible ? It is ; and the very possibility should 
awaken our alarm. Is it probable ? It is ; 
and this should increase our alarm. Is it cer- 
tain ? It is ; and this should raise still higher 
our anxiety. Is it common ? It is ; and this 
should carry our solicitude to the highest pitch. 
What said Christ ? Read with awe and trem- 
bling, Matt. 7 : 21-23. Read, I say, this pas- 
sage in which our Lord with his own hand 
rings the tocsin and sounds alarm through the 
whole church. Ought you not to examine ? Is 
not there need of it ? Is it not all but madness 
to go on without it ? Mistake ! What, in such 
a matter as salvation ? Mistake ! Y/hat, in a 
matter in which an error will require, as I 
have often said, an eternity to understand, and 
?n eternity to deplore it ? 

Are you quite sure this is not your case ? 



182 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

Take up the subject, then, and put the follow- 
ing questions to your soul. 

Am I right, and have I good evidence that I 
am — truly converted to God — a real Christian ? 

If I am a true Christian, am I really an 
advancing one, or am I mistaking a declining 
state for an advancing one ? 

Am I mistaking a lengthened term of pro 
fession for a genuine improvement ? 

Am I putting an increase of knowledge, and 
of ability to talk about religion, in place of an 
increase of holiness ? 

Does it satisfy me to grow in knowledge 
and lamentation of my corruptions without 
mortifying them ? 

Am I confounding sectarianism with true 
piety ; attachment to some preacher with love 
to the truth ; and zeal for some favorite theory 
with real regard for the gospel ? 

Is my mortification of sin confined to some 
one corruption, which interest, ease, or reputa- 
tion may require me to surrender ; or is it 
directed against .all sin? 

Is my religion a mere excitement of the 
emotions, and my growth only a greater exci- 



MISTAKES AS TO I'ROGHESS. 183 

tability ; or is my will more and more deter- 
mined for God, my conscience more tender, 
and my life more holy ? 

Inquire, I beseech you, into these things. 
Be determined, by God's grace, to know the 
real state of the case, and to be under no mis- 
take. Be this your prayer, "0 God of truth, 
thou that searchest the hearts and triest the 
reins of the children of men, thou knowest I 
would not for ten thousand worlds be deceived 
about my spiritual state. Do thou, who know- 
est me altogether, make known to me what I 
really am in thy sight. Painful as it would be 
to find out that I have been deceiving myself, 
this were infinitely better than for me to go on 
in error till the mistake is past being rectified. 
[ want to know my real state. Even if I am 
a Christian, and yet mistaking declension for 
progress, I wish to know this also. Let my 
spiritual insight be clear, my self-acquaintance 
be accurate. Suffer me on no account to de- 
ceive myself, even as regards my progress or 
decline." 



184 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

CHAPTER V. 

HXNDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 

It is indeed a melancholy thing for the 
growth of grace to he stopped ; and to see the 
spiritual child remaining a dwarf. But it need 
not he so, unless the child chooses it. 

1. There is indifference to growth. This 
has been in some measure anticipated where 
we have said that earnest concern and desire 
are among the means of progress. If so, then 
indifference must be an impediment to growth. 
It is not so in nature. A child in health will 
grow, and does grow without a thought or a 
care about the matter* He may never have 
one idea about it ; may be as indifferent as a 
lamb or a young dove, a tree or a flower; 
yet his indifference will not affect his growth. 
But it is not so with a young Christian. In- 
difference here is fatal to all progress. Look at 
this. Indifferent ! "What, about progress to 
heaven and a fitness for it ? Indifferent ! "What, 
about increasing knowledge of eternal truth ? 



HINDERANCES TO PROG-RLSS. L8(j 

Indifferent! "What, to increase in holiness, 
which is the image of Grod in the soul of man ? 
Indifferent ! "What, about the development of 
that character which is formed by a divine 
hand, of heavenly materials, and for eternal 
ages? Young professor, can you endure the 
thought ; does it not astound you, alarm you, 
distress you, to think of being hindered by in- 
difference ? Oh, cast it away at once, and kindle 
into solicitude and concern. Be indifferent to 
anything, or everything else, rather than to this. 
2. Of course we must not leave out of con- 
sideration, but place distinctly before you the 
remaining' corruption of human nature, and 
its imperfect sanctification ; and this must be 
viewed in connection with the temptations of 
Satan. This view of the case has come out 
incidentally, and may yet come out in other 
parts of the volume, but on account of its im- 
portance it must have a separate place assigned 
to it here. It is well for the young convert to 
have a very clear and vivid perception of his 
condition, of what he really is, what he has to 
contend with, and what exertion therefore is 
necessary to overcome the resistance he meets 



1% CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

with in his course. What then is the real 
condition, and what are the true circumstances 
of the person whose case I am now meeting ? 
He is supposed to be truly regenerated, hut at 
the same time only partially sanctified. Sin is 
dethroned, hut not destroyed. His predomi- 
nant taste and disposition are holy, hut his 
principles have not yet struck their roots very 
deep into his soul. His purposes are somewhat 
irresolute, and his inclinations to evil sometimes 
strong, just because, to use a scripture expres- 
sion, "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
these are contrary the one to the other." Satan 
knows all this, and by methods which we can- 
not understand, plies the soul with his various 
machinations and subtle temptations. We need 
not, for it is useless, attempt to explain the 
mystery of Satanic influence. It is nowhere 
laid open to us. One thing, however, beyond 
the fact that he does so tempt us, is certain, 
that he always assails us through the medium 
of our own thoughts, imaginations, and feel- 
ings. Somehow or other he has the power of 
exciting these. So that our resistance of evil 
in ourselves is properly the resistance of the 



HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 187 

devil ivithout us. No perplexity, therefore, 
need trouble us about meeting the temptations 
of Satan, for to vanquish our own evil hearts is 
to vanquish him. It is well to know, to con- 
sider, to ponder the fact that there is still the 
danger of an evil heart of unbelief, aided by 
the power of Satan, hindering us on our way, 
and attempting to turn us out of it. We are 
not only like Bunyan's pilgrim, when we first 
become anxious, setting out with a burden of 
guilt upon our back ; but when, like him, we 
have lost that at the cross, we have still an- 
other burden of imperfections and corruptions 
to carry, which without great labor and effort 
w T ill sadly retard us. It must be understood 
well, that though all external circumstances of 
situation and helps and advantages were as 
favorable as they could be, we still have a sad 
drawback within. We are like a traveller who 
is on a smooth road, has fine weather, is inti- 
mately acquainted with the way, has agreeable 
and helpful companions, but who at the same 
time is very lame, or has a load to carry. His 
lameness or his load will be a great delay to 
him. His attention must be directed to these 



188 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS 

things. He must cure the one or lighten the 
other, or he will make slow progress. 

3. Besetting sins are powerful hinderances. 
"Lay aside every weight, and the sin which 
doth easily beset you," said the apostle. In 
the case of most persons, there is some one sin 
to which, either from their situation, constitu- 
tion, taste, or other circumstances, they are 
more powerfully tempted than to others. Satan 
knows very well what in every case this is, and 
skilfully adapts his temptations to it. He is 
an expert angler, and never takes his hait, or 
throws his line, at random. Independently, 
however, of him, the very tendency of the 
heart is in that direction. That one sin, what- 
over it be, while indulged, will hold you back ; 
you cannot get on till it is mortified. Even 
its partial indulgence, though it may be con- 
siderably weakened, will hinder you. Study 
then your situation, circumstances, and con- 
stitution. You cannot be so ignorant of your 
past history, your present situation, your con- 
stitutional tendencies, your experience, your 
failures, your resolutions, as not to know what 
it is which, in the way of temptation and sin, 



HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 189 

you are most exposed to. You must, you do 
know in what you have most frequently 
wounded your conscience, and occasioned to 
yourself shame and sorrow. Is it an unsanc- 
tified temper ? An impure imagination ? A 
proud heart ? A vain mind ? A taste for 
worldly company ? A proneness to envy and 
jealousy ? A love of money ? A tendency 
to exaggeration in speech? A fondness for 
pleasure ? A disposition to censoriousness, de- 
traction, and backbiting? Study yourselves. 
Examine your own heart. You must find out 
this matter, and it requires no great pains in 
order to know it. It floats upon the surface of 
the heart, and does not lie hidden in its depths. 
There, there is your danger. As long as that 
sin, be it what it may, is indulged, you can- 
not advance. Other sins are as unnecessary 
garments to the ancient racer ; this, like a 
chain round his ancle, or a clog to his feet. 

4. The mistakes mentioned in the last 
chapter are a very considerable hinderance to 
progress. These should be well studied and 
minutely examined. On an ordinary journey 
errors of this kind will have great influence in 



190 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

keeping back the traveller. He who supposes 
he is advancing when the contrary is the case, 
cannot of course get on. We therefore recom- 
mend a very close study of that chapter with 
especial reference to the subject of this. 

5. There are some situations in life very 
unfriendly to growth in grace. Plants, if they 
flourish, require adaptation of soil, atmosphere, 
and treatment. So do animals. So do young 
children. So do young Christians. In all these 
cases, however, except where the situation is 
so uncongenial as to be certain death, and cer- 
tain destruction to the subject of care, much 
may be accomplished by extraordinary atten- 
tion and culture. Corn, by great skill, labor, 
and expense, may be made to grow in unfavor- 
able soils. Animals accustomed to a warm 
climate may by very great care be kept alive, 
and even in tolerable health, in colder regions. 
Children do grow in the absence of many 
things conducive to health. So it is with the 
plants of grace, the lambs of Christ's flock, the 
children of Grod. Religion has to exist some- 
times in situations most inauspicious to its 
growth, yea, to its very existence. A servant 



HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 191 

girl, for instance, may be awakened to a seri- 
ous concern about the salvation of her soul, 
while engaged in a large family, incessantly 
occupied, and associated with other servants 
who are not only destitute of all religion them- 
selves, hut who ridicule and oppose hers ; while 
the heads of the family are also utterly irrelig- 
ious ; so that in all that house there is nothing 
to cherish, but every thing to wither the blos- 
som of piety in this poor girl's soul. Or a young 
man may be led in earnest to remember his 
Creator in the days of his youth, and at the 
time when this new solicitude is awakened in 
his soul, he is engaged as shopman in some large 
establishment, where he is surrounded by a 
number of scoffing, dissolute, and infidel asso- 
ciates, and the master is as ungodly as his 
servants. Or a. young lady may start in the 
divine life, in the midst of a gay, worldly, 
fashionable family. Or a wife may become 
seriously concerned about divine and eternal 
realities, whose husband is entirely a man of 
the world, and requires her to be of one taste 
with him in all his amusements and pursuits. 
Now, can we conceive of any thing more un- 



Id2 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

friendly to earnest, consistent, advancing re- 
ligion, than these and many other situations 
which may he easily imagined ; and yet growth 
is required even here. " Growth !" exclaim 
some, " why, life is scarcely possible here. You 
may as soon expect pineapples to grow on the 
summit of Mont Blanc, or roses and myrtles to 
flourish amidst the polar ices, as think of re- 
ligion thriving in such situations as these." This 
is to miscalculate its own vital strength, and also 
the mighty power of God. I have known, and 
many more have known it to flourish in all 
these circumstances. I remember the case of 
a lady who, within the first month of her mar- 
riage with an ungodly husband, was brought 
under concern about religion, to which, till that 
time, she had been a total stranger. And while 
engaged in all the round of those festive parties 
and amusements which are customary in fash- 
ionable circles on such occasions, had to strug- 
gle with this new anxiety recently awakened 
in her heart, and subsequently with the oppo- 
sition of her husband and of her nearest rela- 
tives. Yet, by the grace of God, her piety not 
only lived, but flourished. 



HINDERANCES TO PROG-RESS. 19b 

Still, it shall bo conceded that the situations 
supposed are, for experience and observation 
prove it, uncongenial with the growth of grace. 
It is difficult to keep a standing- there, much 
more to advance. But it is possible ; and the 
very possibility is encouraging. Consider how 
much is at stake — the soul, salvation, heaven, 
eternity. Consider how much greater your 
condemnation will be, if having once been 
awakened, you relapse again into a deadly 
slumber. Be duly aware, then, of the diffi- 
culty of your situation, and even alarmed at it. 
Say to yourselves, " How can I stand firm ?" 
If you can alter your situation, it may be well 
to do so ; I advise it. You should not be self- 
confident, and say, "I can trust myself. My 
mountain stands strong, I shall never be mov- 
ed. I fear nothing." Then I fear for you. 
Such a spirit is the precursor of a fall. " Be 
not high-minded, but fear." " Let him that 
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 
Flee, I say, flee if you can ; that is, if your 
present situation be not one of obvious duty, 
which leaves you no choice. Some of the cases 
I have mentioned answer to this description, 

Chr. Prog. 1 3 



194 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

and do leave you no option. The daughter can- 
not in many instances quit her father's house ; 
nor can the wife, the home of her husband. 
"Where this occurs, let there be the most earnest 
prayer to God for divine grace, and full un- 
wavering faith in the divine promise. Let such 
persons lay their case before the Lord, and 
remind him of their peculiar need of his most 
gracious assistance. Let them open the ear of 
faith, and hearken to his voice. " Fear thou 
not, for I am with thee ; be not dismayed, for 
I am thy God : I will strengthen thee ; yea, I 
will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the 
right hand of my righteousness." Isa. 41 : 10. 
6. Among the hinderances to progress in 
religion must be mentioned companionship. 
"He that walketh with wise men shall be wise," 
says Solomon, " but a companion of fools shall 
be destroyed." Prov. 13 : 20. We take the 
tinge of our character from those with whom we 
associate, and in return give back in brightei 
hue the color of our own to them. We are all 
the communicants and recipients of unconscious 
influence ; just as healthy or diseased subjects 
are supposed to keep the atmosphere around 



HJNDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 195 

them salubrious or infectious. As, therefore, 
we would preserve our spiritual health and pro- 
mote our increase of strength, let us avoid the 
society of those whose company and conversa- 
tion are unfriendly to piety. The strength of 
our convictions, the fixedness of our habits, the 
clearness and settledness of our principles, and 
the firmness of our resolutions, must in a great 
measure depend upon our associates. David 
said, " I am a companion of all those that fear 
Thee and keeep thy precepts." As to the choice 
of good and suitable companions as a means of 
progress, I have already written in a former 
chapter ; but I now speak of the avoidance of un- 
suitable ones, of such as would be a hinderance 
to it. And I would, with all the emphasis it is 
possible to give to written language, conjure the 
young professor to be most anxiously and trem- 
blingly concerned about this matter. It may 
happen that now, when first brought under con- 
cern about salvation, you may have companions 
congenial with your former tastes ; and some tc 
whom you were much attached, but who are 
still as regardless of religion as you once were. 
This is indeed a painful and perplexing situ a- 



196 CHRISTIAN PROG-HESS. 

tion, and will expose you to considerable dan- 
ger. You will find it difficult either to dissolve 
the ties of friendship, or to maintain them 
without peril to your infantine religion. To 
withdraw from those in whose society you have 
spent so many cheerful hours, will be like cut- 
ting off a right hand, or plucking out a right 
eye. Well, and are not these the terms of 
Christian discipleship ? Yv r hy, in the times of 
persecution, the saints were often called to sur- 
render husbands or wives, parents or children, 
for Christ's sake ; and can you not give up a 
friend ? "Will you risk your religion and jeop- 
ard your soul at the shrine of friendship ? Do 
you know that your religious character must 
be distasteful to your former friends, and that 
their pursuits and conversation are now dis- 
tasteful and actually injurious to you ? Do you 
not come from their society with religious ardor 
damped, the spiritual taste lowered, the devo- 
tional spirit impaired, and the conscience of- 
fended and wounded by your sinking too deeply 
into the current of their conversation ? Is it 
not felt by you that there is one subject, and 
that the most momentous of all, in reference to 



KINDERANCES TO PK.UGRESS. 197 

which you can have no sympathies and no con- 
versation in common? You must withdraw. 
It is come to this, that you must sacrifice your 
friends or your souls ; which shall it be ? 

We do not say that this should he abruptly, 
much less, rudely or sanctimoniously done. 
There must be nothing at all approaching to the 
" Stand by, I am holier than thou." It might 
be well, first of all, by letter or personal inter- 
course, to endeavor to influence your friends to 
adopt similar views to your own ; to use all the 
gentle and unassuming arts of affectionate per- 
suasion to induce them to go with you in the 
ways of wisdom and the paths of peace. If 
you prevail not, then, after a full and fair trial 
to engage them in the bonds of a sacred fellow- 
ship, with tenderness, and frankly stating your 
reasons, withdraw from them. It may be a 
costly sacrifice, but it is a necessary one. 

How much more forcibly does this apply to 
that one friend, who, above all others, is dear- 
est to the heart, and likely, on that account to 
be more influential over the character. Where 
this tender engagement has been formed before 
the religious feeling was excited in either of the 



198 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

parties, it should "be only a very hostile attitude 
against religion in one of them that should in- 
duce the other to dissolve the bond. In such 
a case there is sometimes little trouble, for 
enmity against God goes far to extinguish love 
towards man, and the pious party is released 
by the other from vows always solemn, and 
never to be broken without justifiable reasons. 
But where no engagement of this nature has 
been formed, and the young professor is free to 
choose or to receive, surely, surely a due regard 
to the happiness of both parties, the safety of 
the soul, the pursuit of salvation, the commands 
of Scripture, and the glory of Grod, should lead 
to a determination never to form a connection 
unfriendly to the interests of personal religion 
It is impossible to conceive of any thing more 
likely to exert a deleterious and destructive 
influence over incipient piety, than a cherished 
regard for, and an avowed engagement to a 
person who is a stranger to vital godliness. 
Even they who have long been in the bands of 
matrimony, and who, after they have entered 
them, are brought under the power of godli- 
ness, find it difficult to maintain it, in its vigor 



HINDEK.ANCES TO PROGRESS. L99 

and consistency, against the hostile or even 
neutral influence of a husband or a wife that 
has no sympathy with them in this most mo- 
mentous of all concerns. How much more 
unlikely is it that they who are in all the solici- 
tudes, the emotions, and the agitations of court- 
ship, and that in connection with an individual 
who has no religious sensibilities, can hold on 
their way and wax stronger and stronger. It is 
by no means favorable to the cultivation of true 
godliness, in its <■ earliest stages, to have the 
mind occupied by a subject so engrossing and 
so interesting to the hearts of the persons con- 
cerned as courtship, even where it is between 
persons both of whom are partakers of true 
religion. How much more, then, where this 
does not enter into the character and pursuits 
of one of the parties concerned. 

7. The inconsistencies, short-comings, or sta- 
tionary condition of those who already make, 
und perhaps have long made a profession of 
religion, are a great impediment to the advance 
of those who are just beginning the Christian 
life. There is a proneness on all hands^ in 
nidging of religion, to look at the conduct of 



200 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

those who profess it, rather than to its own in- 
spired records. Infidels do this, and also those 
who wish to he freed from its obligation, and 
who for that end bring against it the incon- 
sistencies of its professors. Something like 
this operates also on the minds of those who 
are beginning the Christian course. Instead of 
studying their obligations in the word of God, 
and taking all their ideas from thence, and 
finding there the proper models of character, 
they look around upon those Christians with 
whom they are acquainted, with a kind of tacit 
idea that if they themselves are as holy and 
earnest and spiritual as these, it is all that can 
be expected from them. Yea, they imagine 
that they who are so young in piety can hardly 
be expected to be as holy, spiritual, and ear- 
nest as they who have been long in the way 
And what do they see in these older Christians, 
in whom at one time perhaps they looked for 
an almost perfect exhibition of spiritual excel- 
lence, as the natural result of long experience 
and rich advantages ? Ah, what indeed ? Of- 
tentimes low attainments, prevailing worldly- 
mindedness, unsanctified tempers, and genera) 



HINDERANGES TO PROGRESS. 201 

unloveliness of character. Instead of resem 
bling trees in the meridian of their age, lofty 
in stature, spreading out their branches, rich in 
foliage, and laden with fruit, they see stunted, 
almost branchless, leafless, and fruitless stocks, 
calling for the gardener's interdict, " Cut them 
down ; why cumber they the ground ?" Others 
perhaps are not in so bad a condition as this, 
but still far from what our Lord describes as 
bearing "much fruit," and so glorifying Grod. 
Here and there they discover some one in an 
eminent degree growing like a cedar in Leb- 
anon, or flourishing like the palm-tree. But 
these are the exceptions, rather than the rule. 
The young inquirer therefore, instead of looking 
at the exceptions, too often turns to the general 
rule, and secretly thinks that he can hardly 
expect to be among the rarer instances of god- 
liness, and contents himself with possessing the 
average amount of it. There may be no actual, 
formal, deliberate making up his mind in this 
way, after general observation ; but an uncon- 
scious and unintentional influence of this kind 
comes over his mind. It was only the day before 
this was written, that a friend informed me of a 



202 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

case he knew of a young female servant who was 
brought under the power of religion, and wish- 
ing to he in a situation favorable to the growth 
of her piety, she went into a family professing 
godliness, w r here she hoped to find every thing 
to foster her early impressions. Perhaps, as is 
commonly the case, she expected too much — 
all but perfection ; but she saw so little like 
true religion in either master or mistress, so 
much worldliness, and such an absence of every 
thing to encourage her in her recent impres- 
sions, that she found herself in almost as much 
danger there as in the place she left. It had 
nearly proved too much for her weak faith, and 
she had well-nigh returned again to her for- 
mer state of careless unconcern. However, by 
God's grace, she was preserved from falling, 
and afterwards recovered her standing and 
progress, though certainly not by any help she 
gained from this worldly-minded couple whom 
she served. 

Against the pernicious influence of example, 
w r e must earnestly caution the young disciples. 
They must not allow themselves to be rendered 
slow in their pace, because others before them 



HINDERANCES TO mOG-RESS. 203 

are so ; nor to "be checked in their speed, either 
by a false modesty which would lead them to 
conclude it would be presumption to pass their 
seniors, nor by an indolence which would but 
too easily lead them to be satisfied with keep- 
ing a little behind them. No doubt it has 
sometimes happened that Satan has puffed up 
the mind of some young ardent minds, when 
in all the fervor of their first love, with vanity 
and conceit, so that they have become some- 
what proud of their own ardor, and still more 
censorious upon the lukewarmness of others. 
There cannot be either a more unlovely or a 
more injurious disposition than for a person 
lately brought under the power of religion set- 
ting up for a public censor, and dealing out 
with unsparing hand his reflections and re- 
proaches upon the character and conduct of 
his neighbors. It is sufficiently offensive in 
ordinary life to hear one who is little beyond a 
beardless youth becoming " Sir Oracle," and 
presuming to scan and censure men old enough 
to be his fathers ; but it is still more disgust- 
• ing to see this in reference to religion : and we 
Hould most seriously warn all young disciple 



204 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

against such, a temper, and admonish them to 
cultivate, among other virtues, the charity that 
"doth not behave itself unseemly."* 

8. There is another hinderance to progress, 
which, in some periods of history, and some 

* There is a very affecting and impressive illustration of the 
influence of professors, in the way of giving advice to a young 
convert, in the history of Roger Miller, that extraordinary 
city missionary, who was killed by a railway accident at Wol- 
verton in the year 1847; a most interesting memorial of 
whom has been published by Mr. Orme. Soon after he became 
awakened to a sense of religion and had entered into church- 
fellowship, he opened a shop as a barber, and like the rest of 
the trade, served his customers on the Sabbath. At length 
he considered that this was a violation of the sanctity of the 
Lord's day, and he determined to close the shop and trust 
Providence for his support. His faith in God, however, at 
that time was weak, and as his business fell off,' he was, as 
might have been expected, reduced to considerable straits in 
his circumstances. He sustained the trial for some months, 
when a fellow-professor and member of the same religious 
community persuaded him to be less scrupulous. Unhappily 
he listened to this advice. And now mark the consequence. 
"In a short time after," he says, impressively and instruc- 
tively, "all my real enjoyment in religion, and all my desire 
to attend the means of grace, was gone." " To what appall- 
ing circumstances," says his biographer, "does one false step 
give rise. In his case many dark years of open apostasy and 
extreme irreligion and vice ensued, and innumerable trout 3es, 
both temporal and spiritual, all ensued from this single act." 
A-*d all must be traced up to that fatal advice of a professing , 
Christian. Oh, professors, take heed what counsel you give, 
as well as what examples you set, to young converts. 



HINDERANCES TO PROG-RESS. 90S 

external states of the church of Christ, has 
been found fatally successful in the case of 
thousands — I mean persecution. 

Persecution has not ceased, and never will 
as long as society is composed of the righteous 
and the wicked. The apostle's words will be 
found to be quite true: "All that will live 
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 
2 Tim. 3 : 12. The essence of persecution lies 
in subjecting a person to injury, pain of body 
or mind, or some inconvenience, on account of 
his religious opinions or conduct, whether this 
be done by public unjust laws, or by private 
ill-treatment. If a person be made the butt of 
ridicule or scorn by his companions or others 
for his religion, he is persecuted, and is called 
to endure cruel mockings and reproaches. Per- 
haps there is nothing more hard to bear than 
this — no test of steadfastness more severe. A 
young man who becomes pious, if in a large 
establishment, is sure to be the object of all 
kinds of unhallowed mirth and sport, and if 
amidst all he remains firm, inflexible, and con- 
stant, he is as truly a confessor as he who goes 
to prison. It is scarcely possible to conceive 



206 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

of a harder trial of constancy than this. Many 
have given way. They could not stand it ; 
and have escaped the pitiless storm of ridicule 
by taking shelter in apostasy. And where 
they have not altogether abandoned their relig- 
ion, have "put the candle under a bushel," ana 
concealed their opinions and feelings, so that to 
others they appeared to have given them up. 
This is as truly denying Christ as open apos- 
tasy ; and is the very case to which he alludes 
when he says, "Whosoever shall be ashamed 
of me and of my words in this adulterous and 
sinful generation, of him shall t*ie Son of man 
be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of 
his Father with his holy angels." Mark 8 : 38. 
Christ will have no secret disciples. He that 
has faith must confess it before men. Rom. 
10 : 9-11. In many cases it may be well, where 
the opposition is too hard to be borne, to quit 
the situation, though it is a noble instance of 
moral heroism to endure it bravely, "strong in 
the Lord and in the power of his might." 

But there are other cases, in some respects 
more trying than even this : I mean where a 
young person, especially a female, becomes 



HINDERANCES TO rROORESS. 207 

decided in spiritual religion in the midst of an 
ungodly family ; where not one is found to 
countenance her, and all oppose her. She can- 
not do many things she once did without 
scruple or hesitation. Some of their amuse- 
ments offend her conscience, and she declines 
them. She is now considered by her strict- 
ness as condemning all the rest, and is re- 
proached as an accuser and reprover of the 
family, not excepting her parents. She is 
charged with being a divider of the household, 
and as having introduced discord and strife. 
It is a most trying situation for the object of 
persecution to endure the anger and meet the 
frowns of father and mother, brothers and 
sisters — to be considered and reproached as the 
disturber of the peace of a once happy and 
united family : what firmness of principle, what 
inflexibility of purpose, what martyr-like con- 
stancy, what a power of divine grace does this 
require. 

And even where the opposition is not so fierce 
as in either of these cases, it may be so consid- 
erable as to be a great trial of constancy and a 
powerful hinderance to progress. There may 



208 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

be the threatened withdrawment of patronage, 
favor, friendship, or custom ; and the mild ex- 
postulation and the gentle entreaty, which are 
a persecution of love. How difficult to put 
aside all this and go on. Instead of this, many 
are themselves turned aside and go "back. Their 
courage fails, their love of ease gains the as- 
cendency, and they surrender their convictions 
their hopes, their prospects — in short, theL 
religion. 

Let those who are thus tempted consider the 
consequences of giving up their profession. Let 
them read with solemn awe the passages of 
Scripture already quoted. For their encour- 
agement, let them take up their Bibles and read 
our Lord's words in his sermon on the mount, 
Mat. 5 : 10-18. Let them also peruse the beau- 
tiful language of the apostle, 1 Pet. 2 : 19-24 ; 
4:12-19; 2 Tim. 2:11-13; Heb. 12:1-13 
Let them wrestle with God for his grace to 
assist them, and cast themselves upon his prom- 
ised aid, expecting that he will uphold them. 
It should be accounted by them an honor and 
a glory to suffer for Christ. They should bear 
all with patience, meekness, and forgiveness. 



HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 209 

A. quiet and gentle sufferer will in most cases 
subdue even the hard-hearted oppressor. There 
is a wondrous power in consistent and unvary- 
ing meekness. Let not opposition then hinder 
you. Let your courage rise with your circum- 
stances, your self-denial keep pace with both, 
and your humility and sense of dependence 
upon God deepen with the pressure of opposi- 
tion upon your strength. 

9. A taste for worldly amusements will 
inevitably prove, wherever it is indulged, a 
powerful obstacle to growth in grace. Man is 
unquestionably made for enjoyment. He has 
a capacity for bliss, an instinctive appetite for 
gratification, and for this Grod has made ample 
provision of a healthful and lawful kind. " A 
taste for pleasure" means something different 
from this ; or at any rate, it means this directed 
to wrong sources, or carried to an excess. Now 
there are some amusements which in their very 
nature are so utterly incompatible with true 
religion, that a liking for them and a hanker- 
ing after them, and especially an indulgence in 
them, cannot comport with real, earnest, and 
«erious piety. The convivial parties of the glut- 
Chr. Prog. 1 4 



210 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

ton and the drunkard, the passion for the 
gambling-table, the pleasures of the race-^ 
course, and the performances of the theatre, 
are all of this kind. A taste for them is utterly 
uncongenial with a spirit of godliness. So is a 
love for the gay and fashionable entertainments 
of the ball-room, and the routs and parties of 
genteel life. These are all unfriendly to re- 
ligion, and are usually renounced by persons 
intent upon the momentous concerns of eternity. 
A love for them dies out from the soul agitated 
and made anxious by the great question, " "What 
shall I do to be saved ?" We would not doom 
to perdition all who are at any time found in 
this round of worldly pleasure ; but we un- 
hesitatingly say, that a taste for them is entire- 
ly opposed to the whole genius of Christianity. 
They are all included in that " world" which 
is overcome by faith and the new birth. Re- 
ligion is, though a happy, a very serious thing, 
and can no more live and flourish in the heated 
atmosphere of those parties, than could a plant 
brought from the frigid or temperate zone under 
the burning rays of a tropical sun. But in this 
pleasure-loving, pleasure-seeking, and pleasure- 



RINDERaNCES to PROGRESS. 211 

inventing age, there is a great variety of amuse- 
ments perpetually rising up which it would be 
impossible to say are sinful, and therefore un- 
lawful. Yet the supposition of their lawfulness 
viewed in connection with their abundance, 
variety, and constant repetition, is the very 
thing that makes them dangerous to the spirit 
of true religion. A taste for even lawful world- 
ly amusements, which leads its possessor to be 
fond of them, seeking them, and longing for 
them, shows a mind that is in a very doubtful 
state as to vital piety. It looks as if he had 
not yet entered into the Saviour's words to the 
woman of Samaria, " "Whosoever drinketh of 
this water shall thirst again : but whosoever 
drinketh of the water that I shall give him, 
shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well of water, spring- 
ing up into everlasting life." John 4 : 13, 14. 
Now this thirsting after worldly pleasure of 
any kind would seem as if the subject of it had 
not yet drank of the living water from the well 
of salvation. This anxiety after even innocent 
ivorldly gratification seems to indicate that 
the peace which passeth all understanding had 



212 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

not yet taken possession of the soul ; and this 
inquiry, " Who will show us any good ?" hard- 
ly comports with a mind that had said to God, 
" Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance 
apon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, 
more than in the time that their corn and their 
wine increased." Psalm 4:6, 7. 

I do not like to be asked, as I sometimes am, 
the question, " whether such and such amuse- 
ments are compatible with religion." That is, 
I do not like it when it evidently proceeds from 
a prevailing wish to enjoy them, and a desire 
to get ministerial sanction for indulging in 
them. It ought not to be necessary to prove 
that many of these are unlawful, they should 
be found unnecessary.* 

* I am aware that it is sometimes pleaded on behalf of 
worldly amusements by young people, that abstinence from 
them represents piety as clothed with austerity, and as a spe- 
cies of penance, and that religious people should go as far as 
they can in these things to disprove the calumny. There is 
something perhaps in this, but it requires to be very narrowly 
watched; for, without caution, see how far it would carry 
us. They who indulge in pleasures which 720 religious person 
could ever engage in, may say that all persons must have a 
very melancholy religion who debar themselves of their pleas- 
ures. So that an excessive repugnance to all amusements, 
and the repugnance may, I concede, be excessive and almost 



HINDERANCES TO PROG-RESS. 213 

After all, it is freely admitted that religion 
is not hostile to any thing which is not hostile 
to it; that many things which are not religion, 
though not opposed to it, may be lawfully en* 
joyed by the Christian ; that what he has to 
do in this matter is, not to practise total absti- 
nence, but moderation : yet he should remem- 
ber how elastic a term " moderation" is, and to 
be vigilant lest his moderation should contin- 
ually increase its latitude till it has swelled 
into the imperial tyranny of an appetite which 
acknowledges no authority, and submits to no 
restraint. 

ridiculous, should not be so beaten down as to make way foi 
a latitude which would be dangerous to personal godliness. 
A Christian is not to partake of the pleasures of the world to 
prove that his religion does not debar him from enjoyment; 
but he is to let it be seen by his "peace that passeth under- 
standing," and his "joy unspeakable and full of glory," that 
his religion gives far more enjoyment than it takes away — 
that in fact it gives him the truest happiness. The way to 
win a worldly person to religion is not to go and partake of 
his amusements, but to prove to him that we are happier 
with our pleasures than he is with his ; that we bask in sun- 
shine, while he has only a smoking taper ; that we have found 
the "river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from 
the throne of God and the Lamb," while he is drinking of the 
muddy streams which issue from the earth. 



214 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

If in an important mission, journey, or under- 
taking of any kind, you were impeded in refer- 
ence to the object contemplated, you would in- 
quisitively and anxiously search for the cause 
of delay, and never rest satisfied till you had 
found and removed it. I am now supposing 
there is a hinderance of one or more kinds to 
your progress towards heaven, to your increase 
of faith and holiness. There are stones in the 
way to be gathered out. It is a fearful idea to 
think of hinderances to heaven, impediments to 
holiness. If there were any thing that hinder- 
ed your health, or prosperity in business, or the 
success of any earthly scheme whatever, how 
earnestly you would ask the question, " What 
is it ; what is it ?" How thankful you would 
be to the friend who pointed it out, and how 
diligently you would set to work to take it out 
of the way. Well, there are impediments in 
your way to Zion. You are hindered. You 
do not perhaps make progress. How is this ? 
I say to you what the apostle did to the Grala- 
tians, " Who did hinder you ?" or what? Look 



hindee-anc.es to PROG-RESS. 215 

back through this chapter ; take up every par- 
ticular ; say of each, Is it this, or this, that 
stops my progress? I ask you, and I implore 
you to ask yourself, 

Is it indifference to the subject ? 

Is it the unsubdued corruption of your na- 
ture, left to itself, unresisted, unmortified ? 

Is it an easily besetting sin ? 

Is it one of the mistakes mentioned in the 
last chapter ? 

Is it the peculiarity of your situation being 
unfriendly to a life of piety ? 

Is it unsuitable companionship ? 

Is it the inconsistencies of professing Chris- 
tians ? 

Is it a taste for worldly amusements ? 

Is it persecution ? 

Examine, I beseech you, examine what it 
is that arrests you in your course, and take it 
away. Again I say, " Gather out the stones." 



216 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 

It might be supposed it would be its own 
motive. "Who need to be admonished to pro- 
ceed in a course on which they have entered, 
which leads to wealth ? Do the men who have 
gone to the gold fields, and who have begun 
to find the precious metal, need to be stimulated 
to go forward ? And yet we do find that even 
in relation to some earthly objects of pursuit, 
and valuable ones too, where self-denial, sacri- 
fice, and surrender of present gratification for 
future benefit is required, much persuasion is 
sometimes necessary to keep the person in con- 
tinuous exertion for the attainment of the de- 
sired good. If he has lost his health by excess 
in the indulgence of appetite, either in the way 
of eating, drinking, or any other lust of the 
flesh, and by medicino and moderate diet, and 
other restraints, he is beginning to recover, how 
necessary in some cases is perpetual exhorta- 
tion, to induce him to refrain from excess, and 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 217 

to persevere in the denial of his appetite. How- 
earnest we must be in setting before him all 
the motives which ought to have weight with 
him in leading him to abstain from whatever 
is injurious to his health. • So is it in religion. 
A person just commencing his attention to this 
momentous concern has so many hinderances 
both from within and without to stop his prog- 
ress, that he needs to be urged forward by the 
voice of affectionate entreaty. He must be 
appealed to by all that can be brought to bear 
upon his judgment, heart, and conscience. He 
is like a man just awaking out of a deep and 
heavy slumber, about whom the drowsiness still 
hangs, and who is strongly inclined to fall back 
again upon his pillow and relapse into stupor. 
You must speak loudly to him, and even shake 
him with some degree of violence, and compel 
him to rouse himself and keep himself awake. 
Such is really the condition of a recently awak- 
ened sinner. I now therefore present the 
motives which apply to his case for making 
progress. 

1. And the first I bring forward is the >ne 
just suggested, the danger of declension. 7 



218 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

may even add to this the proneness to declen- 
sion. The progress of the sinner is like that 
of a stone rolling clown hill, which has a con- 
tinual tendency to go of itself, and by every 
revolution to increase its speed and momen- 
tum : that of a believer is the progress of a 
stone up-hill, which has not only a considerable 
vis inertice to be overcome by great effort, but 
which when this effort is suspended tends to 
roll back again. The stone in either case does 
not, cannot stand still, but by the laws of mat- 
ter and motion must keep going backward, 
unless prevented by actual effort. This is im- 
pressive, and deserves very serious considera- 
tion. If the young disciple does not advance, 
he will in all probability retrograde. 

Declension after we have once made a pro- 
fession, or have been awakened to solicitude, 
is really a very fearful thing. It is most af- 
fecting and alarming to_ see a person once deeply 
convinced of sin, seriously anxious about sal- 
vation, professedly obtaining peace through 
faith in Christ and commencing a course of 
practical godliness, either falling again into sin' 
or sinking into predominant worldliness. Has 



MOTIVES TO PROG-RESS. 219 

not this sad spectacle been often witnessed ? 
Have we not seen this in persons who at one 
time seemed to have such love to Christ that 
it might have been fitly called the love of their 
espousals ? They scarcely wished for any other 
pleasure than that which was enjoyed in com- 
munion with himself and with his saints ; his 
name was as ointment poured forth, and they 
loved his very image. The exercises of private 
prayer, the perusal of the holy Scriptures, and 
the public ordinances of the sanctuary were 
waited for with eager expectation. The com- 
pany of those only who were like-minded was 
selected, and the promotion of the cause of Grod 
was the enterprise which most interested them. 
They had often made solemn resolutions before 
the. Lord, and had often said, " Thy vows, O 
God, are upon meP And what, and where 
were they afterwards ? Alas, how changed ! 
All their former resolutions were broken, and 
all their habits changed. Their first love sub- 
sided into lukewarmness, and at last into ab- 
solute coldness and indifference. Prayer was 
Restrained ; public worship neglected ; the Bible 
never opened ; the company of the saints for- 



220 CHRISTIAN PROaHESS 

saken ; the love of pleasure gained the ascen- 
dency ; and in some cases, open sins that had 
been forsaken, were again practised. The poor 
backslider himself sometimes has conscience 
enough left to he made miserable by its 
reproaches and stings; while they who had 
known him in his better days lament over 
his change, and exclaim in bitterness of heart, 
" Alas, how fallen !" The sins of such a person 
have peculiar aggravations. They are com- 
mitted after the most solemn vows and engage- 
ments, and against clearer light. They are 
without any provocation on the part of Grod. 
"What iniquity," said God to the Jews, "have 
your fathers found in me, that they are gone 
far from me ?" Jer. 2:5. A question which 
is addressed also to every backslider, and which 
ought to cut him to the very soul, and stir 
every spring of sensibility and self-abhorrence. 
Did the backslider find him a hard Master? 
Was the way of obedience a rugged path, 
through a barren wilderness and a land of 
drought? Sins after profession are attended 
with circumstances of peculiar and horrid in- 
gratitude. After Grod has poured out upon us 



MOTIVES TO PROG-RESS. 221 

his Spirit, taken us by the hand, and led us to 
repentance and the beginning of a religious 
course, then to turn away from him, and refuse 
any longer to be under his guidance, how base- 
ly thankless is all this ! Such departures from 
Grod are expressive of the most extreme and 
singular folly as well as wickedness. They 
who commit them, once professed to be happy 
in serving the Lord. They seemed to have 
found rest in Christ. They were no longer run- 
ning up and down in the world, saying, "Who 
will show us any good ?" but had found happi- 
ness in religion. Their judgment was convinc- 
ed ; their heart was satisfied ; their conscience 
was quiet ; their whole soul was at peace. But 
now, by turning back again to sin or to the 
world, they cast all this away. And they can- 
not now enjoy the pleasures of sin or the world 
as they once did. They sometimes feel that 
they have made a foolish bargain, and have 
exchanged liberty for drudgery and slavery, 
peace of conscience for bitter remorse, joyful- 
ness of heart for sorrow and anguish. It is a 
being weary of the government of the Prince of 
peace, whose yoke is easy and whose burden 



222 CHRISTIAN PROORESS. 

is light, and putting their necks under the 
iron yoke of Satan, which crushes them to 
destruction. 

Such conduct also causes the ways of godli- 
ness to he spoken ill of. It has the same effed 
upon many as the ill report of the spies whc 
were sent to survey the land of Canaan, which 
discouraged the people, caused them to mur- 
mur and rebel, and was the occasion of their 
perishing in the wilderness. The backslider 
thus perpetrates a double mischief, his conduct 
is infectious and tends to corrupt those who 
already believe, while it discourages those who 
do not. It says to them, " I have tried the 
paths of wisdom, and do not find her paths as 
I was told and expected, to be paths of pleasant- 
ness and peace." This is a fearful contradic- 
tion of Grod's word, an awful calumny upon 
religion, and in effect an impious blasphemy 
against God. Such is the sin of declension 
and backsliding ; and* if it go on to apostasy, 
then how fearful ! Read what the apostle has 
said on this subject, Heb. 6 : 5-9. Let every 
young disciple turn to the passage, read the 
words, and tremble. And no less solemn is 



MOTIVES TO PROORESS. 223 

the language of the apostle Peter, 2 Peter, 
2 : 21-22. 

It is not only possible, but probable, that 
some who shall read this work, will be found 
by it in various stages of declension already ; 
some who have consciousness enough of their 
situation and even occasional regret enough to 
borrow the poet's lament : 

" Where is the blessedness I knew 
When first I saw the Lord ; 
Where is the soul-refreshing view 
Of Jesus and his word ? 

" What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, 
How sweet their memory still ; 
But they have left an aching void 
The world can never fill." 

To such I would say, instantly take alarm and 
tremble at your danger. Let the words of G-od 
sound like thunder in your ears, " If any man 
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in 
him." He will be a man whom God ceases 
to regard with approbation. His displeasure, 
instead of his complacency, rests upon him. 
He marks every footstep backward with re- 
proach and disgust. Can you bear to think of 
this? " Can your heart endure and your hands 
be strong" in such a situation? Perhaps the 



224 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

declension is yet slight, only like a speck of 
disease, like the beginning of consumption, 
curable if taken in time, but fatal if suffered to 
go on to after-stages. But in whatever degree 
the declension may have taken place, it should 
excite solicitude and lead to immediate efforts 
for recovery. The counsel delivered by our 
Lord to the church at Ephesus should be 
hearkened to with solemnity, and followed with- 
out delay : " Remember from whence thou art 
fallen, and repent and do thy first works." It 
is not enough to know that you are declining, 
nor merely to lament it ; complaining alone 
will not effect a cure. We may sigh and go 
backward to the last period of our lives. Our 
chief solicitude must be to recover lost ground. 
In order to this, there must be deep contrition 
and profound humiliation before G-od. In such 
a state we must begin as we did originally, 
with conviction of sin. The backslider must 
return through the valley of humiliation. There 
is no other way back for the wanderer. It 
will be well to inquire diligently after the cause 
of the declension. What was it that led you 
astray? Here begin in the way of return. 



MOTIVES TO PROaRESS. 225 

Tils point where you left the road is of course 
the point at which you must return to it. If 
it w&re a sin of neglect, instantly take up the 
omitted duty. If it were a sin of practice, 
immediately put it away. It will perhaps be 
somewhat difficult to recover your standing ; 
for as we have said, declension is a down-hill 
progress, but the way of return is all up hill. 
You will perhaps be ashamed, afraid, and 
somewhat reluctant to go back. He who un- 
gratefully and ungenerously quits a friend, feels 
some shyness and backwardness to return, and 
say, "I have sinned; forgive me." So is it 
with the backslider towards God. But mark 
his love, where, even to backsliding Israel, wjio 
had so often gone away from him, he said, 
" Israel, return unto the Lord thy God ; for 
thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with 
you words, and turn to the Lord : say unto 
him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us 
graciously : so will we render the calves," offer- 
ings, " of our lips. I will heal their backsliding, 
I will love them freely ; for mine anger is 
turned away from him." Hosea 14 : 1, 2, 4. 
And to convince you how ready God is to re- 
cur. Pro S . 1 5 



226 CHRISTIAN PltOG-KESS. 

ceive you, let me refer yon to that wonderfully 
pathetic passage, where Grod is represented as 
a loving father, overhearing the confession and 
lamentation of his penitent child, and lavishing 
upon him the fondness of his paternal heart, 
Jer. 31 : 18-20. What heart can stand out 
against the melting pathos of this wonderful 
passage ? What backslider need now fear to 
return to the Lord ? 

2. It should be most impressively felt that 
progression is commanded and expected by God. 
We now refer you back to the commands which 
are given in the second chapter ; and would 
especially fix your attention on those which 
enjoin you to seek after perfection. This is a 
subject which a young Christian should thor- 
oughly understand, but which few do either 
understand or consider. Misconceptions on 
this subject are fatal to growth. The verb, 
" be perfect," and the noun, " perfection," are 
of such frequent occurrence in the New Testa- 
ment, that the subject to which they refer 
ought to engage the close and serious attention 
of every professing Christian. There can be 
no doubt that these terms are sometimes em- 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 227 

ployed by the sacred writers in a comparative 
sense, as signifying high degrees, eminence, 
completeness of parts. In Hebrews 6 : 1, per 
fection signifies the more sublime, enlarged, 
spiritual, and complete views of Christian doc« 
trine, as opposed to first principles. In 1 Cor. 
2:6, Phil. 3:15, "to be perfect," means to 
be far advanced in knowledge. But there are 
other places where it is unquestionably to be 
understood in its unqualified sense, as intending 
absolute and sinless perfection ; such are 2 Cor. 
7:1: " Having therefore these promises, dearly 
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthi- 
ness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness 
in the fear of Grod." So again, Heb. 13 : 21, 
" Make you perfect in every good work." 
There can be no doubt that in these passages 
the apostle means entire freedom from sin, an 
absolutely spotless holiness. 

" The apostle does not say," to quote the 
comment of Barnes, "that this perfection has 
ever been attained, or is attainable, in this 
world ; nor does he say that it has not been. 
He only urges the obligation to make an effort 
to be entirely holy ; and this obligation is not 



228 CHRISTIAN PE.OG-RESS. 

affected by the inquiry whether any one has 
been, or has not been, perfect. It is an obliga- 
tion which results from the nature of the law 
of God, and his unchangeable claims upon the 
soul. The fact that no one has been perfect, 
does not relax the claim ; the fact that no one 
will be perfect in this life, does not weaken 
the obligation; it proves only the deep and 
dreadful depravity of the human heart, and 
should humble us under the stubbornness of 
guilt. The obligation to be perfect is one that 
is eternal and unchangeable. The unceasing 
and steady aim of every Christian should be 
perfection, perfection in all things — in the 
love of Grod, of Christ, of man ; perfection of 
feeling, words, and plants, and dealings with 
man; perfection in prayers and submission to 
the will of G-od. No man can be a Christian 
who does not sincerely desire it, and who does 
not constantly aim at it. No man is a friend 
of G-od who can acquiesce in a state of sin, 
and who is satisfied and contented that he is 
not as holy as Grod is holy. And any man who 
has no desire to be perfect as God is, and who 
does not make it his daily study and constant 



MOTIVES TO PKOGRESis. 229 

aim to be perfect as Grod is perfect, may set it 
down as demonstratively certain that he has no 
true religion. How can a man be a Christian 
who is willing to acquiesce in a state of sin, 
and who does not desire to be just like his 
Master and Lord ?" 

This is strong and impressive language, and 
requires the very devout, serious, and solemn 
consideration of all who are beginning the 
divine life, as showing them what is to be their 
aim, their study, and their endeavor — even to 
be perfect in every good work. Young con- 
verts see no perfection in others ; they hear it 
said by Christians there is no perfection ; they 
feel none in themselves ; and therefore never 
dream that it is their duty to seek after it ; 
and thus reconciling themselves to all kinds 
and degrees of imperfections, begin and con- 
tinue with a very low state of religion. I 
bolieve that infinite mischief is done to the 
souls of men, that ihe profession, of godliness 
is much disparaged and dishonored, and the 
lustre of the church dimmed, by a prevalent 
forgetfulness, and in some quarters a denial, 
that it is our duty to go on unto perfect, n. 



230 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

Many are tolerating all kinds and degrees of 
imperfection, under the plea that none are 
absolutely perfect. Young disciples have been 
taught as one of their first lessons in theology, 
that as absolute perfection is not attained in 
this life, it is useless to seek after it, and that 
they may be very good Christians, even while 
not only possessing but indulging many known 
corruptions. I would not for the world be 
misunderstood ; I would not break the bruised 
reed, nor quench the smoking flax. I would 
not say any thing to cast a stumbling-block in 
the way of the feeblest lamb in all the flock of 
Christ ; and* yet I would be equally solicitous 
to guard them against self-deception. What I 
say then, is this, not that all imperfections are 
evidence of an unconverted state, but that the 
intentional indulgence of them, knowing them 
to be such, under the notion that a great 
amount of imperfection is compatible with a 
state of grace, is so. Not that the possession 
of perfection is essential as an evidence of sin- 
cerity, but a desire and pursuit after it. 

3. Progress is a bright evidence of sincerity. 
Growth, as we have already remarked, is the 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 231 

proof of life. Dead things do not grow. There 
are few minds among professors of religion in 
which the question does not, and none in which 
it ought not, with deep anxiety, sometimes to 
arise, " Am I, or am I not, a child of Grod ?" 

Now, surely the transition from death to life ; 
the change from an unregenerate to a converted 
state ; the ceasing to be an enemy to Grod by 
wicked works, and becoming his child by filial 
love and obedience, cannot be a change of so 
trivial, superficial, and undistinguishable a 
nature as not to be ascertained without great 
difficulty. It might be supposed to be easily 
recognized where it really exists. True it is, 
that the change is in some cases more marked 
than in others. Where the conversion is sudden, 
and is a turning from actual vice, or awful 
infidelity, or even from flagrant heresy, it is 
more apparent, and more easily determined by 
consciousness, than where it is the gradual 
formation of religious character in persons pre- 
viously correct in their general conduct, and 
brought up under religious instruction. It is 
in these latter cases, that doubts and fears 
about sincerity must be expected more fre- 



232 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

quently and painfully to occur. It is, there- 
fore, in these cases that progress is indispensable 
as an evidence of sincerity. For it must be 
recollected, that even in these, growth is as 
essential to life as in the others. Grace never 
finds in nature a subject for which there is 
need of little to be done. There may be very 
beautiful wild flowers blooming, or very good 
fruits growing in the wilderness, yet even these 
can be carried on to much higher beauty and 
much richer flavor by the culture of the 
greenhouse and the hothouse. When the 
young disciple can say, " True, I have not to 
compare, as the effect of God's converting 
grace, a virtuous with a vicious life. I have 
not to contrast a present pious belief with a 
former blaspheming infidelity. But I find an 
increasing loosening from many of my former 
tastes. The love of worldly pleasure, which 
even at my commencement of a religious life 
was strong in me, is evidently weakened, and 
I find piety more and more the source of my 
happiness. If a growing conscientiousness to 
avoid little sins, and to practise small duties, 
be a proof of sincerity, I rejoice to say I havo 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 233 

this. As regards besettfrig sins, I have reason 
to believe these are far more mortified than 
they were, and temptations to them have less 
power over me. My temper, once so irritable 
. and impetuous, is subdued ; and I find it more 
easy to govern my tongue. My prejudices 
towards those who differ from me in religious 
opinions have been softened by the influence of 
Christian charity. If these things be evidence 
of sincerity, I am no self-deceiver ; for I can 
certainly perceive in myself these marks of 
progress." 

Here I will present a passage of holy Scrip- 
ture, which it is of importance every young 
disciple should "read 3 mark, learn, and inward- 
ly digest." The apostle Peter thus exhorts: 
" Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence 
to make your calling and election sure."- 2 Pe- 
ter, 1 : 10. The things to be made sure are 
our " calling and election," God's* choice of us, 
manifested by his converting us ; in other 
words, our spiritual character and spiritual 
safety. To make this sure, or certain, cannot 
have reference to Grod, for no act of ours can 
make more certain any thing he does. Nor can 



234 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

it refer to the things themselves, for if a man 
^e really chosen and called of God, nothing 
that he can do can make these more certain. 
It must therefore refer to ourselves. God treats 
as as rational and moral agents, and what may 
be absolutely certain in his mind from his mere 
purpose that it shall he so, is to be proved to 
us only by evidence and the free exercise of 
our own powers. The meaning therefore of 
this passage is, that we are to obtain evidence 
that this is our condition. And how are we to 
obtain it? The celebrated Cudworth, in his 
sermon on the text, " Hereby do we know that 
we know him, if we keep his commandments," 
has the following remarks upon the passage 
from St. Peter which I am now considering: 
" He that builds all his comfort upon an un- 
grounded persuasion that God from all eternity 
hath loved him, and absolutely decreed him to 
life and happiness, and seeketh not for God 
really dwelling in his soul, builds his house 
upon a quicksand, and it shall suddenly sink 
and be swallowed up. "We are nowhere com- 
manded to pry into these secrets, but the 
wholesome counsel and advice given us is this, 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 235 

{ to make our calling' and election sure? We 
have no warrant in Scripture to peep into these 
hidden rolls and volumes of eternity, and to 
make it the first thing we do, when we come 
to Christ, to spell out our names in the stars, 
and to persuade ourselves that we are certainly- 
elected to everlasting happiness, before we see 
the image of God in righteousness and true 
holiness shaped in our hearts. God's everlast- 
ing decree is too dazzling and bright an object 
for us at first to set our eyes upon. It is far 
easier and safer for us to look upon the rays of 
his goodness and holiness, as they are reflected 
in our hearts, and there to read the mild and 
gentle characters of God's love to us, in our 
love to him, and our hearty compliance with 
Heaven's will ; as it is safer for us, if we would 
see the sun, to look upon it here below in a 
pail of water, than to cast up our daring eyes 
to the body of the sun itself which is too radi- 
ant and scorching for us. The best assurance 
any one can 'have of his interest in God, is 
doubtless the conformity of his soul to Him. 
"When our heart is once turned into a conformity 
with the mind of God, when we feel our will 



e r36 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

conformed to his will, we shall then presently 
perceive a spirit of adoption within ourselves, 
teaching us to say, Abba, Father. We shall 
not then care for peeping into those hidden rec- 
ords of eternity, to see whether our names are 
written there in golden characters ; no, we shall 
find a copy of God's thoughts concerning us 
written in oil* own breasts. There we may 
read the character of his favor towards us — 
there we may feel an inward sense of his love 
to us, flowing out of our hearty and unfeigned 
love to him. And we shall be more undoubt- 
edly persuaded of it, than if any of those wing- 
ed watchers above, that are prying into heaven's 
secrets, should come and tell us that they saw 
our names enrolled in those volumes of eternity." 
4. Progress is its own reward. From what 
infelicity is the advancing Christian protected. 
He has not the unhappiness which in many, if 
not in most cases, declension brings upon its 
subject. But as pain is still a sign of life, 
though a suffering one, even this is better than 
the insensibility of death. In the case jus 4 
mentioned, the individual still retains some 
considerable tenderness of conscience, some re- 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 237 

ligious sensibility, without being supposed to bo 
hankering after the amusements of the world ; 
but I am now speaking of those who are almost 
entirely dead to religious feeling and strongly 
inclined to gayety, yet in some measure held in 
check by the last lingering remains of religion. 
They are still professors, but find their profes- 
sion only a clog and a hinderance to their 
pleasures. They see its inconsistency with 
their tastes and occasional enjoyments, and 
find it as a drop of bitter in their cup of gratifi- 
cation. Sometimes they wish they had never 
made a profession of religion. They are morose 
and ill-tempered with themselves for ever think- 
ing of being a Christian, and till they are led 
to abandon it altogether, which at length they 
are brought to do, they are checked by it, much 
to their annoyance, in their course. This is a 
wretched state of mind ; it spoils its possessor 
both for the world and for religion. 

But these are only the negative side of the 
pleasure of growth ; we turn therefore to the 
positive. And here we would remark, that 
progress in any thing on which we have set our 
hearts, is always agreeable ; and this applies 



238 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

especially to religion. Viewed in its true na- 
ture, it unites the highest dignity with the 
purest pleasure. Her ways are ways not only 
of pleasure and paths of peace, hut of honor 
and renown. Can any thing he loftier, nohler, 
sublimer, than a growing conformity to the 
image of Grod ; to see a stronger and a stronger 
resemblance to God in our soul ; to behold 
the moral attributes of the divine nature fixed 
with a deeper and a deeper coloring on the 
character ? "What to this is the pleasure of the 
artist in seeing the correct likeness of some 
great monarch, or some wonderful genius, grow- 
ing under his hand upon the canvas ? How 
exalted is the pleasure of religion ; it is the bliss 
of angels, the happiness of spirits made perfect, 
yea, the joy of God's own heart. It is enjoyed 
under the smile of conscience, and conscience 
is undoubtedly the great repository and maga- 
zine of all those pleasures that can afford any 
solid refreshment to the soul. When this is 
calm, serene, and smiling, then the man per- 
fectly enjoys all things, and what is more, him- 
self, for that he must do before he can enjoy 
any thing else. It is a pleasure that never 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 239 

satiates nor wearies. Can the lover of worldly- 
pleasure say this ? With him how short is the 
interval between a pleasure and a burden. 

But we may descend to a few details. How 
delightful is it to grow in knowledge. With 
what a passion for this are some minds possess- 
ed. And if such be the value of secular know- 
ledge, how much greater the worth of that 
which is divine. Can any thing be more de- 
lightful, than to be ever finding out some new 
meanings, some fresh beauties in the word of 
G-od ; for the spiritual astronomer to discover 
some new star in the firmament of inspiration ; 
or for the spiritual botanist to light on some 
new flower in the fields of revelation ? 

But take also the trio of graces set forth by 
the apostle — faith, hope, charity ; and here 
again we say, to grow in each and all of these 
is to advance in happiness. Faith is the first 
source of all true joy to the Christian. " In 
whom believing," says the apostle, " we re- 
joice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
Faith looks abroad upon the whole field of 
revelation, in all of whose facts, doctrines, pre- 
cepts, invitations, and promises, it finds sg 



240 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

many separate objects of delight. But it con- 
centrates its attention on Christ and heaven. 
It looks with wonder, gratitude, and love, on 
the cross, and then passes on with similar 
feelings to the crown of glory. To grow in 
faith is therefore to grow in bliss ; and to put 
up the prayer, " Lord, increase our faith," is 
only in other words to say, " Lord, increase 
our happiness." Here we see the reason why 
so many professing Christians go mourning all 
their days — their faith is so weak ; and it is of 
momentous consequence for every young Chris- 
tian at his very outset in the divine life to 
understand that faith is the branch, of which 
joy is the blossom, and holiness the fruit. 
Much the same strain of remark may be made 
in reference to hope. It is easy to see that all 
hope must be pleasant from its very nature. 
This is the case with even worldly expecta- 
tions. Poets have sung "the pleasures of 
hope," and experience has justified and echoed 
the strain. The apostle in describing the 
Christian state of mind in reference to this 
object, speaks of it as "rejoicing in hope," 
Romans 12 : 12, which is but a repetition of 



MOTIVES TO PKOGK.ESS. 241 

what he had said before, " And rejoice in hope 
of the glory of God." Rom. 5 : 2. 

Charity, or love, is another of the compo- 
nent parts of religion mentioned by the apostle, 
to advance in which is to advance in happiness. 
G od is love, and he is also the blessed God ; 
and he is the blessed God, because he is love. 
It is impossible it should be otherwise. All 
the malevolent feelings are productive of misery 
to the subject of them. For this reason, Satan, 
whose nature is unmixed malignity, must be 
the subject of unmixed misery. No happiness 
can dwell in that bosom from which all benevo- 
lence is expelled ; while no misery can be 
found in that breast from which all malevolence 
is cast out. Perfect love casteth out not only 
fear, but wretchedness. Let any one read the 
description of love in the epistle to the Corin- 
thians, and say if the grace there described 
must not contain the very elements of bliss. 
And is not growth in holiness equally delight- 
ful? Holiness is our spiritual health, as sin 
is our disease. How beautiful and how well 
worthy our attention and adoption for ourselves 
was the prayer of the apostle for Gaius : " Be- 

Chi Prog 16 



242 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

loved, I wish above all things that thou mayest 
prosper and be in health, even as thy soul 
prospereth." 3 John, 2. Health, and especially 
growing health, is one of the most delightful 
sensations we can experience. To feel the tide 
of energy flow back to its forsaken channel, 
and the depressed frame become, amidst the 
beauties of nature and the breezes of heaven, 
more and more buoyant, the step more elastic, 
the appetite more keen, and the power of 
exertion more vigorous : this is to experi- 
ence in some cases almost a type of the resur- 
rection. But even this does not equal the joy 
of growing in grace, of returning and increasing 
spiritual health. 

5. It adds to the credit and redounds to the 
honor of religion generally. It is given out 
to the world, and the world knows it, that in- 
crease is one part of the Christian's duty and 
profession. Our phraseology and the language 
of Scripture are well known to those who are 
not pious, and who make no pretensions to be 
so. They hear us preach and pray and talk 
about growth in grace ; about our light shining 
more and more unto the perfect day ; about 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 243 

our running the Christian race, and other 
matters of a like kind : they very naturally 
take us at our word, and knowing that all 
these figures of speech import progress, they 
look for it, and expect to see it, and are disap- 
pointed if they do not see it ; and when they 
observe those inconsistencies which prove that 
we are either not going forward, but ever going 
back, they taunt us with the sarcasm, " Where 
is your advancement ?" " Is this your growth ?" 
" Is it thus you improve ?" In all other mat- 
ters, or most others, they do see it in this 
world's affairs, and ought to see it in religion. 
It adds to the credit of any system of medical 
practice, or of any individual practitioner, when 
under their treatment the health of the patient 
is restored ; so also it redounds to the honor ot 
a schoolmaster or a teacher of any kind when 
his pupils make great and rapid advance in 
what they are taught ; while on the contrary, 
it discredits either or both of these, when there 
is no improvement. And must it not be the 
same with religion ? Yet, is there no occasion 
given by the conduct of many for some such 
reflections on the part of worldly people a? 



244 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

these ? " Every system which professes to lead 
onward those who are under it, proves its 
excellence for this purpose by its results. And 
in most we do see a manifest advance in those 
who place themselves under it. "We see boys 
growing in knowledge at school, apprentices 
advancing in acquaintance with their business, 
and young tradesmen becoming more and more 
clever in secular affairs. It ought, of course, 
to be so in religion. The people who profess it 
have the Bible in their own hands ; they go to 
church every Sunday with great regularity ; 
they take the sacrament ; and in many other 
things make great ado about their religion. 
Now, with all these means, opportunities, and 
advantages for personal improvement and 
spiritual culture, what manner of persons 
ought they to be? These people tell us that 
it is one of their principles to grow in grace. 
What evident, conspicuous improvement ought 
therefore to be seen in them. And yet really 
religion seems to be almost the only thing in 
which men do not make progress, if we may 
judge by their conduct. What increase of 
knowledge may take place in their minds we 



MOTIVES TO PROORESS. 245 

cannot tell, nor how often they pray in their 
families or in their closets ; but forming our 
opinions by their outward conduct and visible 
character, the light of holiness does not shine 
brighter and brighter before men. We have 
known some of them many years, and have 
watched them closely, though not unfairly, 
much less malignantly, but we must confess 
we see very little, if any improvement in 
them. Nay, in some things, they have even 
gone back, and are worse than they were when 
they first made a profession of religion." 

Dreadful reproach! Alas, alas, how just m 
application to some, as well as dreadful ! Let 
it be the deep solicitude of every one who has 
the least regard for the honor and credit of tho 
gospel to roll this reproach away, by present- 
ing a character in which all the beauties of 
holiness shall be continually coming out in 
bolder and more striking relief. * How would 
it raise not only the gospel, but the church of 
Christ, in public estimation, if men looked up 
to it as a school where the pupils were ever 
studying how to advance in all that can make 
them acceptable to G-od, and useful to man. 



246 CHRISTIAN PHOaRESS. 

What reverence would it secure for the minis- 
ter of the gospel, and what respect for his min- 
istrations, if by him and by others, it were 
seen that all who profess to have been convert- 
ed by his preaching, were beheld engaged in 
an arduous struggle against all that is evil, 
and continually making attainments in all that 
is good. 

6. And is it not a powerful motive to grow 
in grace, to consider that our present attain- 
ments in true religion have a connection with, 
and will have an influence upon our heaven- 
ly and eternal stale? There is a much closer 
relation between our present selves in this 
world, and our future selves in the next, than 
most persons are aware of. "What a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap," both in quali- 
ty and quantity. It is not possible to set out 
in the Christian profession with a more in- 
structive or impressive idea than this — life is 
the seed-time for eternity. It is a common 
way to think of heaven and hell as if they 
were two states where all are alike happy in 
the one, or miserable in the other, whatever 
may have been their attainments in holiness, 



MOTIVES TO PHOG-RESS. 247 

or their deeds of wickedness. That all the 
righteous will be in heaven, and that all will 
be perfectly happy there, is quite true. As 
regards the general sources of heavenly felicity, 
these will be open alike to all ; but this does 
not suppose that in many particulars, there 
will not be an endless variety. "We know too 
little of the future state to specify these mat- 
ters ; we walk by faith. " It doth not yet ap- 
pear what we shall be." There are, no doubt, 
innumerable sources of delight, and varieties 
of employment, of which we can now form no 
more conception than we can of the exercises 
and pleasures of a sixth sense. There may, 
and in all probability will be social gradations 
of rank, diversities of post, place, and service, 
and higher and lower degrees of honorable dis- 
tinction. For these a proportionate and di- 
versified fitness may be required. One man 
may be more qualified for some high place and 
honorable service in the heavenly world than 
another ; and that which constitutes the quali- 
fication for this higher place may be, not so 
much great intellectual powers in our earthly 
state, but more eminent piety. It is not the 



248 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

man of large yet unsanctified understanding, 
that is qualified for heaven, but the man of 
sanctified heart. It is moral and spiritual excel- 
lence that is the meetness for the inheritance 
of the saints in light. And whatever may be 
the measure of his intellectual capacity, he is 
the most meet for it who is most holy. If this 
be true, many an eminently holy peasant or 
artisan, will be higher in glory than the less 
holy philosopher or scholar ; and many a youth- 
ful Christian cut off in the morning of his days, 
but carried away in the full blossom of dis- 
tinguished piety, be found more qualified to 
serve G-od in some high place above, than the 
aged professor of low and small degrees ol 
personal godliness. Is it to be conceived God 
will deal out as much commendation upon even 
an eminent Christian, as upon a martyr or an 
apostle ? Or to take a more ordinary case, upon 
the very feeble and too worldly-minded profes- 
sor, who may be after all a sincere Christian, 
as upon the spiritually-minded, heavenly, self- 
denying, and consistent one ? v ^ 

But the sources of our heavenly bliss will 
not be all from without, but also from within. 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 249 

Even on earth, "a good man is satisfied from 
himself." He carries, in his holy dispositions, 
the springs of his own felicity about with him. 
And so. will it be in heaven. It is not only 
where, and with whom we shall be, but what 
wo shall be, that will make us happy. And 
eminent piety here will, in all likelihood, pre- 
pare us for a larger capacity of holiness and 
happiness there. The holiness and happiness 
of the least saint in heaven will be as perfect 
as that of the highest archangel, or the chief of 
the apostles ; but the capacity for this per- 
fection may, and must be immeasurably larger 
in the one case than the other. A tea-cup may 
be as full to overflowing as a cistern, yet how 
much greater is the fulness in the one case than 
in the other. Here then is the connection not 
only of a state of grat3e, but of the actings of 
grace with a state of glory. It is not only that 
one leads to the other, not only that one pre- 
pares for the other, but that one is proportion- 
ate to the other. It is probable that there b 
not one holy act, or motive, or desire, or volition 
of our whole lives, that has not some bearing 
upon our eternal character and happiness. God 



250 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

deals with us as regards another world, not only 
according to our state, whether we are righteous 
or wicked, hut according to our actings in that 
state. 

ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

Is your heart susceptible of the power of a 
motive to any thing ? Is there aught below or 
above the skies that can move you ? Do you 
really know what a motive means ? If so, sure- 
ly, surely you must feel the force of these I 
have now presented. Must not the stone of an 
unrenewed heart remain in your soul unchanged 
to flesh, if you are insensible to the power and 
attractions of these inducements? If these 
things fail to impress you and impel you, you 
would remain stationary and indifferent beneath 
a voice or a vision from heaven, or a messenger 
from the burning pit. If these things do not 
stimulate you, I should despair of the power 
of an angel's harp or a demon's groan. Are 
you on reading these pages at all excited to de- 
sire to advance ? Say, does the fire kindle, does 
the glow diffuse throughout your soul at the 
idea of what is here presented ? If not, let me 



MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 251 

try again, not by new motives, "but by recalling 
those which are here enumerated. 

Does not the dread of declension, backslid- 
ing, apostasy, terrify you ? 

Shall not the command of Grod impel you ? 

Will not the hope of gaining a sweet and 
blessed evidence of sincerity, lead you to seek 
after progress ? 

Does not the experience you have already 
had, though it may be in a small degree, of 
the reward which advancement yields, induce 
you to go forward ? 

And then what shall be said of the fact that 
our degrees of grace will regulate our degrees 
of glory ? Has this no motive power for your 
soul ? "What, so dull, so earthly, so insensible to 
the felicities, honors, and distinctions of heaven, 
as to feel little holy ambition to have some high 
place there ? 



252 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ENCOURAG-EMENTS TO PROG-RESS. 

There is, perhaps, no greater hinderance on 
the part of some, than a desponding fear of 
ever getting forward in the divine life. They 
see so much in themselves that is imperfect — 
such ignorance, such corruption, such luke- 
warmness ; so much in their situation and 
circumstances that is opposed to their advance- 
ment ; so much of stagnancy or declension in 
others, that seems to render it unlikely that 
they shall succeed better than their friends and 
acquaintances ; so much that renders it un- 
necessary, as they suppose, for them ever to 
wish for it, that they give it up in hopeless 
depression. " Ah," they say, "it is indeed a 
desirable thing to grow in grace. Happy are 
they who can realize so covetable a condition 
of soul. I often long for it, but it is with the 
wishes of one who sees the object of his desire 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 253 

immeasurably above his reach. I sometimes 
sigh amidst my low attainments in knowledge, 
faith, joy, and holiness, and pant for better 
things ; but I end as I began, in desponding 
lamentations, I seem forbidden to hope for im- 
provement." Forbidden ! By whom ? Cer- 
tainly not by Grod. Discouraged ! Why ? Let 
your despondency yield to the following con- 
siderations. 

To those who are really anxious about this 
matter, the Scripture is full of encouragement. 
How confident is the language of Job amidst 
all his sorrows. " The righteous shall hold on 
his way, and he that hath clean hands shall 
wax stronger and stronger." Job 17 : 9. Here 
is not only continuance but progress. " Clean 
hands" are designed to denote a holy life. 
Among the ancients they were regarded as 
indicative of purity of heart. Porphyry re- 
marks that in the heathen " mysteries," those 
who were initiated were accustomed to wash 
their hands with honey instead of water, as a 
pledge that they would preserve themselves 
from every impure and unholy thing. So that 
the language of Job is an assurance that a holy 



254 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

man should become still more holy. His very 
practice of righteousness tends to establish him 
in his way, to confirm his principles, and make 
that easy by habit which is enjoined as duty. 
Piety, like every thing else, strengthens by 
exercise. 

How beautiful is the language of the Psalm- 
ist : " The righteous shall flourish like the palm- 
tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
Those that be planted in the house of the 
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. 
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; they 
shall be fat and flourishing." Psalm 92 : 12-14. 
The palm is indigenous to tropical and other 
warm climates. It grows to a considerable 
height and size, and presents a beautiful appear- 
ance. Its fruits, which are called dates, are 
much valued and are eaten both fresh and pre- 
served, and are also pressed for syrup and wine. 
But it is not for its fruit alone that the palm is 
so valuable. From the boughs, which are yearly 
lopped off from the lower parts of the stem, are 
made baskets, bird-cages, ropes, and sacks; 
from the leaves, mattresses, sandals, etc. It is 
an evergreen, and lives to an extreme old age • 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 265 

the wood is durable and much used. How 
striking an emblem of a good man. He shall 
flourish like the palm-tree. The cedar was 
considered by the Hebrews as the monarch of 
the vegetable world, on account of its magni- 
tude, majesty, the number and extent of its 
boughs, and the durability of its wood, which 
was so remarkable that some supposed it to be 
incorruptible. Moreover every thing about the 
oriental cedar has a strong balsamic odor, and 
hence the whole forest is so perfumed with 
fragrance that a walk through it is delightful. 
Mount Lebanon was in ancient times covered 
with forests of cedars, of which however there 
are now only few remains. Again we say to 
the Christian, Behold your emblem. " He 
shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." 

Similar to this representation is the extra- 
ordinarily picturesque language which we find 
in the book of Hosea : " I will be as the dew 
unto Israel ; he shall grow as the lily, and cast 
forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches 
shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the 
olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They 
that dwell under his shadow shall return ; they 



256 CHRISTIAN PHOG-RESS. 

shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine : 
the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Leb- 
anon." Hos. 14 : 5-7. These verses contain 
gracious promises of Grod's favor and blessings 
upon Israel's conversion. In the fifth verse it 
is described by that refreshment which copious 
dews give to the grass in summer. If we con- 
sider the nature of the climate and the necessity 
of dews in so hot a country, not only to refresh 
but likewise to preserve life ; if we consider 
also the beauty of the oriental lilies, the fra- 
grance of the cedars which grow upon Lebanon, 
the beauteous appearance which the surround- 
ing olive-trees afford, the exhilarating coolness 
caused by the shade of such trees, and the 
aromatic smell exhaled by the cedars ; if we 
add to this the reviving of the corn with all 
the verdure of spring, and the blushing grapes 
pendant from the vine, we shall then partly 
understand the force of the metaphors here 
employed by the prophet ; but their full energy 
no one can conceive till he feels both the want 
and enjoys the advantage of the particulars 
referred to in that climate where the prophet 
wrote. "What a glorious prophecy! How 



ENCOURAG-EMENTS TO PROGRESS. 257 

sublime, how energetic, how just ! and this 
description is not for Israel merely after the 
flesh, but for the Israel of Grod. It may be 
there is a national reference, but we have lot 
and portion in the matter, (rod sets his love 
upon us ; pours down his grace upon us ; and 
fulfils all this to those who have faith in the 
promise of his Spirit." It is not merely the 
poetic beauty of this passage that we hold up to 
notice, though this is surpassingly great, and 
it is one of those gems of composition which 
so profusely stud the Bible and commend it to 
taste as well as to piety, but it is the promises 
of grace and growth w T hich it contains for the 
encouragement and consolation of all God's 
people to the end of time. 

How full of encouragement is also the lan- 
guage of the prophet, Isaiah 40 : 31. "They 
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength ; they shall mount up with wings as 
eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary ; and 
they shall walk, and not faint." This beautiful 
passage refers primarily, though not exclusive- 
ly, to the captive Jews in Babylon, and en- 
couraged the pious among them to exercise 

chr. rrog \ 7 



258 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS 

confidence in God's ability and willingness to 
accomplish his promises, and to wait with 
patience for his gracious appearance on their 
behalf. But it contains a general promise of 
continued supplies of grace and strength to 
all who really desire to serve the Lord with 
integrity and simplicity. The image of the 
eagle is a very fine one, and this is not the 
only place where it is employed. The prophet 
alludes to the strength of pinion and of vision 
possessed by this noble bird, whereby it ascends 
to a lofty height, untired and undazzled, soaring 
even above the fogs and mists of the lower 
regions of the air, mounting above the very 
clouds, undeterred by the lightning, and floating 
in the pure azure above. Thus shall all who 
wait upon the Lord rise higher and higher, 
upon the mighty pinions of strong devotion 
and with the unblinking eye of faith, into the 
regions of heavenly-mindedness ; and shall 
approach nearer and nearer to God, the sun ot 
our spiritual day. 

Then the other expressions, if less figurative, 
are not less encouraging : " They shall run" 
in the heavenly race, for the crown of immox- 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 259 

tal glory, " and not be weary" Their strength, 
instead of being exhausted, shall, contrary to 
what occurs in bodily effort, be increased by 
exertion. No length nor greatness of labor 
shall be too much for them. God shall poui 
into their souls fresh energy for every fresh 
effort. They shall thus be enabled to press 
along the mark towards the prize of their high 
calling in Christ Jesus. " They shall walk^ 
and not faint P Their wayfare may be ardu- 
ous ; the road may be long and rugged ; often 
up steep ascents, and down into deep and 
rocky defiles, where every step is a labor, but 
they shall not lose heart or hope ; they shall 
not swoon, nor halt, nor turn back, but go 
forwards, sustained by a power greater than 
their own. 

But perhaps a plain didactic and unpoetic 
quotation from the New Testament, will, after 
all, have more weight with some minds than 
this profusion of gorgeous oriental imagery. 
What then can be more consolatory than the apos- 
tle's words to the Philippian church? " Being 
confident of this very thing, that He which 
hath begun a good work in you will perform it 



260 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

until the day of Christ." Phil. 1:6. He will 
have respect to and delight in the work of his 
hands. He is honored and glorified by the 
perseverance of his people in faith and holi- 
ness, and will give all the supplies of grace 
necessary for the work. He loves to see his 
children grow in all that is excellent, even as 
does a wise and good earthly parent, and far 
more readily will contribute all that is neces- 
sary for this purpose. 

2. Dwell upon the love and tenderness of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me direct your 
attention first of all to that wonderfully beau- 
tiful and tender representation where it is said, 
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he 
shall gather the lambs with his arm, and shall 
carry them in his bosom." Isaiah 40 : 11 
Now you will notice who are here represented 
as the objects of his care, " the lambs ;" which 
means not only those of tender age, but of 
recent standing in religion, they who are 
young in Christian experience ; and also they 
whose spirits are withal naturally timid, whose 
strength is feeble, and whose danger is great. 
You, you, recently brought to Christ by re- 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 20 1 

pentanco and faith, you are the objects of 
Christ's special attention, care, and solicitude. 
You are thoy whom he takes up in the arms of 
his power, and lays on the bosom of his love. 
He knows your weakness, your timidity, your 
dangers. Ho directs towards you his tenderest 
sympathy, and will exert for you his greatest 
vigilance and his mightiest power. This ex- 
pression however not only conveys the idea of 
great care of the weak, but the exercise of that 
care with a view to their preservation and 
growth ; it means not only that he cordially 
receives them, will provide for their safety, 
consult their comfort, and will accommodate his 
conduct to their wants, but that he will nourish 
them through their infant existence, and rear 
them up to maturity and strength. You should 
dwell upon the exquisite tenderness of the 
passage — but not only upon this, but upon its 
intimation that he will assist you in your 
growth. The good Shepherd does not wish or 
intend that his lambs should be always lambs ; 
his aim is that they should be full-grown sheep, 
and he will leave nothing undone that this 
might be accomplished ; and it is for this 



262 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

reason, as well as from pity and kindness, that 
he takes such care of them. So it is with our 
Lord Jesus in reference to the young convert. 
Let every lamb of the flock of Christ therefore 
go to him by faith and prayer, and say, " Blessed 
Jesus, I come to thee a poor weak and trembling 
creature, doubtful of my own continuance, and 
alarmed at my numerous difficulties and ene- 
mies. I am but a lamb, and often fear I shall 
never be any thing better, but perish as I am. 
But was it not in regard to such weakness that 
thou hast been pleased to utter these gracious 
and tender words ? I believe what thou hast 
spoken, and will venture my soul upon it. I 
flee to thee as the helpless lamb to its shepherd 
when hungry to feed it, when pursued by wild 
beasts that he may defend it. Lord,' take me 
in the arms of thy power and lay me on the 
bosom of thy love, though I am so poor and 
inconsiderable a creature. I will hope in thy 
pastoral power and love, that I shall not only 
continue but grow, and that thou wilt one day 
rejoice in me as one of the flock which thou 
hast purchased with thy own blood. " 

3. But perhaps you may find some en- 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 203 

couragement even in your own experience, 
without looking to others. You are sometimes 
disheartened and cast down. You make little 
or no progress in religion. You are no wiser, 
holier, or happier than you were. And you 
fear you never shall be. You begin to be 
heartless and desponding. Deeply sensible of 
your deficiencies, you fear they will never be 
supplied ; you feel your remaining corruptions, 
and have faint hopes of subduing them. Y r ou 
see heights above your head, which you fear 
you shall never reach. In the race you are no 
nearer the goal, and in the conflict gain few 
advantages over your foes. To be as you are 
is your utmost hope, and not to go back your 
strongest effort. For you, progress is out of 
the question. Again I ask, Why ? Only because 
you think so. I have referred you to the 
promises of Grod — to the grace and intercession 
of Christ — to the examples of others ; but now 
let me refer you to your own history and ex- 
perience. I am supposing that you have expe- 
rienced the converting grace of God ; that you 
have really and in earnest commenced the 
great work of salvation ; that, in short, you are 



2G4 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

not what you were. Old things have passe-J 
away and all things have become new. And 
if this be the case, is it for you to doubt whether 
you can advance ? Is continuance to be de- 
spaired of by him who has been enabled to 
begin ; or advancement by him who has been 
enabled to continue ? Have you by grace taken 
the mighty step, stride, bound, for it is all this, 
from an unconverted to a converted state, and 
do you doubt whether you shall go on step by 
step afterwards? Have you pressed through 
the strait gate, and shall you not be able to 
press forward also in the narrow path? Js 
progressive sanctification more difficult, either 
to you or to Grod, than regeneration ? Oh, think 
of all the difficulties that stood in the way 
when you first entered the road to glory. 
Recollect what you had to encounter from 
within and without. Have you forgotten the 
trembling apprehensions with which, when the 
decision was to be made for Christ, salvation, 
and eternity, you doubted if it ever would be 
made ? The anguish with which, on a survey 
of all you had to encounter, you exclaimed, 
" Who is sufficient for these things?" Yet it 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 26r> 

ivas made. God's grace was sufficient for yon 
in this tremendous crisis of your spiritual and 
eternal history. And now, can you doubt 
whether the grace that converted you can carry 
you forward ? "What, planted and not be able 
to thrive ? Born, and not be able to grow? 
Started, and not be able to run ? Victorious, 
and not be able to conquer ? Will you so much 
disparage the grace that has been given as to 
doubt its continuance, and the work it has 
wrought as to fear its going forward ? Have 
you learned no more from God's past wisdom 
and power and love, than to question whether 
they will help you onward in that course to 
which they have introduced you ? Why, one 
should be ready to suppose you would be ever 
full of joyful expectation and exultation too, 
exclaiming, " To what measure of knowledge, 
faith, holiness, joy, and usefulness, may I not 
hope to reach, since I have been translated by 
the power of (xod from darkness to light, and 
from the kingdom of Satan unto Grod ?" You 
yourself, in what Grod has done for you, are a 
proof of what he can and will do for you if you 
will ask him, and trust him. Cast away then, 



266 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 

all your desponding fears, your low expecta- 
tions, your unworthy doubts ; they dishonor 
God as well as distress yourself. You are 
yourself the strongest proof that you can ad- 
vance, for you have advanced. " He that has 
begun the good work in you will perform it 
until the day of Jesus Christ." Remember 
the words, and enter into the argument, of the 
apostle, " Much more then, being now justified 
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
through him. For if when we were enemies, 
we were reconciled to Grod by the death of his 
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall 
be saved by his life." Rom. o : 9, 10. 

CONCLUDING- ADDRESS TO THE READER. 

' The subject, the ineffably, infinitely, eter- 
nally momentous subject, is now before you, 
compared with which all other matters, even 
the most valuable of them, dwindle into insisr- 
nificance, shrink into nothing, and fade into 
darkness. I have been speaking about prog- 
ress ; but progress in what? Not in science, 
literature, wealth, power, fame. No. These 
are important ; but what are they to religion ? 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 2G7 

They relate to earth, this to heaven ; they he- 
Jong to time, this to eternity. Their value 
will cease at death ; the value of this will then 
be perpetuated for ever and ever. Every step 
you take in this course is a step to glory, honor, 
and immortality ; consequences hang on each 
step which no mind can comprehend hut that 
which grasps infinity and eternity. You are 
fearfully and wonderfully placed, for you are 
passing through a probation which must issue 
in torment or in bliss which eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, nor has ever entered into the 
imagination of the human mind. I have laid 
before you the necessity of that progress — its 
nature, its means, its hinderances, its mistakes, 
its motives, and its encouragements, which be- 
long to true religion. By the perusal of this 
book you have incurred a new responsibility, 
and are under a more solemn weight of obliga- 
tion than you were before. If you should turn 
back in your course, you had better never have 
read it ; or having read it, would find it a mercy 
could you blot from your memory its contents. 
But this you cannot do. No water of oblivion 
can help you to cast into forgetfulness what 



268 CHRISTIAN PROG-ItESS. 

you have read. Its coming into your hands 
will form a new fact in your existence of no 
small moment to you ; for it will be a new ag- 
gravation of the sin and condemnation of back- 
sliding, or a new means of growth in grace. 
It may be neglected and for a while lost sight 
of, but it will rise up again and again, if you 
recede, and will meet you like a frowning 
spectre in your retrograde path. It will follow 
you into eternity, to give sharpness and venom 
to the tooth of the never-dying worm, and 
fierceness to the fire that never shall be quench- 
ed. But " I hope better things of you, and 
things that accompany salvation, though I thus 
speak." The motives I have suggested will, I 
hope, prevail to urge, and the encouragements 
I have suggested to excite you to advance. 
Every thing you can desire or imagine, that 
would be helpful, is with you and for you. The 
attributes of the eternal Grod, the character and 
offices of Christ, the influences and operations 
of the Holy Spirit, the ministration of angels, 
the labors of Christian ministers, the religious 
literature of the age, the prayers of all good 
men, are with you, to aid and encourage you 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 260 

in your progress. Is this nothing ? Is it little ? 
On the contrary, is it not much ? Is it not every 
thing? What more can you need, or can you 
have? 

And now then let me conjure you to seek to 
advance in the divine life. You must not, you 
dare not, and I hope, by the grace of God, will 
not, be satisfied to be always what you are, 
with no more knowledge, faith, holiness, or 
peace than you now have. "What God com- 
manded to be said to the children of Israel, 
that they should go forward, is said to you : 
go forward. By all the authority, the com- 
mands, the promises of God — by all the love, 
power, grace, and intercession of Christ — by all 
the work of the Holy Spirit, so sufficient for 
your need, I conjure you, go forward. By all 
the value of your immortal soul and all the 
blessings included in its salvation, I conjure 
you, go forward. By all the pleasures of real 
religion now, and all the meetness it furnishes 
for eternal bliss hereafter, I conjure you, go 
forward. By all the regard you have to the 
credit of the Christian profession and the wel- 
fare of other men's souls, I conjure you, go for- 



270 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 

ward. By all tlie solemnities of judgment, 
all the glories of heaven, all the torments of 
hell, all the ages of eternity, I conjure you, go 
forward. To all these arguments and entrea- 
ties, so urgent as well as so numerous, let judg- 
ment, heart, will, conscience, respond. " On- 
ward, onward in the path to holiness, happi- 
ness, and heaven ; and then onward, onward, 
through the progression of eternal ages. 

Now lay down the hook and present in sin- 
cerity, faith, and fervor, the following prayer : 

Almighty and most merciful Father, thou 
delightest not in the death of a sinner, much 
'ess in the destruction of a believer ; grant me, 
through Jesus Christ, the power of thy Holy 
Spirit, to follow the directions laid down in this 
book. Impress me more and more deeply with 
the necessity of progress in the divine life. 
Enlighten me to understand its true nature. 
Preserve me from all mistakes on this moment- 
ous subject. Bless to me the use of appropri- 
ate means for growth in grace. Enable me to 
avoid and put aside all hinderances to progress. 
Stimulate me by the application to my con- 
science and heart of all the motives here sug- 



ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 271 

gested, and cheer me by the encouragements 
which have been held out to me. Of thine in- 
finite mercy never suffer me to draw back unto 
perdition, but number me with those who be- 
lieve to the saving of the soul. Help me like 
thy holy and blessed apostle Paul to forget the 
things that are behind and press towards the 
mark for the prize of our high calling in Christ 
Jesus ; and after continual increase of grace 
here, bring me to the eternal progression of thy 
saints in glory everlasting. Grant this accord- 
ing to the riches of thy grace through Christ 
Jesus. Amen. 



THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

SPilIlILJz tke faLLani'uiQ, cuizcuiq al/ie/- 

Luai L ks_ cLciajilecL ta JPizqiuJ-e.^^ fa/- tlia 

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BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. 

DODDRIDGE'S RISE AND PROGRESS OF RELIGION 

IN THE SOUL. 

PIKE'S PERSUASIVES TO EARLY PIETY, GUIDE 

FOR YOUNG DISCIPLES, AND RELIGION AND 

ETERNAL LIFE. 

BAXTER'S SAINTS' REST, AND CALL TO THE 
UNCONVERTED. 

ALLEINE'S ALARM. 

JAMES' ANXIOUS INQUIRER, AND CHRISTIAN 

PROGRESS. 

PRACTICAL PIETY, by Hannah More. 

WILBERFORCE'S PRACTICAL VIEW OF CHRIS- 
TIANITY. 

FOSTER'S APPEAL TO THE YOUNG. 
JAY'S CHRISTIAN CONTEMPLATED. 

SHERMAN'S GUIDE TO AN ACQUAINTANCE 

WITH GOD. 

THE SPRING-TIME OF LIFE, by Dr. Magie. 

WHY DO I LIVE? by Rev.. Thomas Smyth, D. D. 

COME TO JESUS; CALL TO PRAYER; YOUR 

SOUL— IS IT SAFE? 

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